Before the ninth round of matches at the India Cements Chennai Open international chess tournament gets under way, the overhead lights go out. There is a power failure and inside the vast gloom of the Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Periamet, sit, in almost perfect silence, 330 players, separated from each other, by the arms of their plastic chairs at the sides and by an 8x8 board in front.
The list includes 25 plus GMs, around 40 IMs and a handful of WGMs from all over the world. Some of the best young minds in the world sit there, together, in a meditative catatonia.
It is engaging to wonder if this crowded silence will last forever, and for 15 or so minutes it did. The painful squeak of the floorboards beneath the frantic feet of the men running about setting things right, was about all that could be heard.
“They just did not get up. Did not talk. They hardly talk to each other before or after matches. They get to their seats first thing and, after the matches, they are off,” says one of the arbiters later, about the scene.
Top seed
This sufficiently forewarns one of approaching any of them for a chat or an interview, let alone the best there is. GM Alexander Areshchenko is the top seed here and the winner at the Parsvnath International Open in Delhi, early this month. His Elo rating is 2671, which places him a rung below the super GMs such as Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen and co. who occupy the 2750-2800 bracket.
He is forthright when approached. “My English is very, very poor” he admits, upfront.
“I am not happy with Nb5, I should have won but, I didn't,” he leads out, speaking about his round eighth game that ended in a draw. The conversation peters out, after much befuddled incomprehension on either side.
A sample…
When did you start playing chess?
Seven.
Isn't that considered a little late? People start early, when they are, say three or four, right?
“Yeah, (they start) really, really early. Yeah. It (starting late) was difficult.”
About chess in his country, he says:
Ukraine is second in the world, just after Russia. There are many famous players, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vassily Ivanchuk, and others.”
Is chess the most popular sport there?
“I think not, it's football.”
Unlike several Eastern block countries, chess is not part of the curriculum in schools in Ukraine.
“No. we don't have any sports in school, no football, no chess. Not at all,” he says.
On his toughest game, he says:
“Very difficult, the (Mikhalo) Oleksienko match. I was completely blind. I don't understand how. So many mosquitoes,”
What brings Areshchenko to animation and relative garrulity is a question on the plateau his ranking has hit (2650) for the past few years.
“Wait, wait, more than 2650. It could be 2660 to 70 to 80. I had this rating maybe five or six years ago. But, since then nothing has progressed. I don't know. Maybe, I must work very hard,” he says.
The abject note that the answer rings, one feels, has more to do with his unfamiliarity with English than an actual assessment of his game.
Barring major upsets, at the end of the tournament, Areshchenko should hit 2680+, his highest rating yet.
The Elo system, on which the FIDE ratings are based, rewards you for wins against higher ranked players, while punishing you quite severely for draws or losses to players who are ranked below you. Areshchenko is the top seed here. By extension, the Ukrainian has to win almost all his matches, to maintain or very marginally better his ratings.
So, why Chennai? “Just to win,” he says.
Monster moves
GM Alexander Areshchenko, 24, is a former World Youth and Ukrainian National champion. In chess circles, he goes by 'monster,' because of his ultra-aggressive style of play. He plays ping pong and computer games when he is not practising. Currently in the city for the Chennai International Open tournament, Areshchenko's acquaintance with the outsides of the Nehru Indoor Stadium is restricted to a 'rickshaw ride to Central.'
