Latest news with #RasetZiatdinov
The Hindu
18-06-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Lalit Babu and 23 others in lead
Grandmaster Tornike Sanikidze beat Grandmaster Raset Ziatdinov in 42 moves in the thrid round of the Aurionpro Grandmaster chess tournament at the World Trade Centre on Wednesday. Raset opted to exchange his queen for a couple of minor pieces and pawns, but it did not work to his advantage. Tornike made a second queen and ripped through the defence. Except for two boards, the rest of the top players won their third round. There were as many as 24 players with three points, including International Master Soumya Swaminathan. After two tough rounds, Grandmaster Lalit Babu eased to victory in 23 moves against Prakhar Raj. In the junior section, 12 players led with three points The results (third round): Levan Pantsulaia 3 bt Shrayan Majumder 2; Daksh Goyal lost to Manuel Petrosyan 3; Luka Paichadze 3 bt Rupesh Jaiswal 2; Arnav Agrawal 2 lost to Mihail Nikitenko 3; Lalit Babu 3 bt Prakhar Bajaj 2; Arshpreet Sigh 2 lost to Mamikon Gharibyan 3; Boris Savchenko 3 bt Alluri Reddy 2; Aamuktha Guntaka 2 lost to Vedant Panesar 3; Tornike Sanikidze 3 bt Raset Ziatdinov 2; Guru Prakash 2.5 drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy 2.5; Arsen Davtyan 3 bt Yohan Boricha 2; Sri Sandipagu 2 lost to Duc Hoa Nguyen 3; Alexander Slizhevsky 3 bt Om Nagnath 2; M Mridav 2 lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov 3; Alexei Fedorov 3 bt Akila Kavinda 2; Ram Parab 2 lost to Nayaka Budhidharma 3; Neelotpal Das 3 bt Samuel Noble 2; Dinesh Jaganathan 2 lost to Nithin Babu 3; Van Huy Nguyen 3 bt Adhiraj Mitra 2; Vinayak Kulkarni 2.5 drew with Semetei Tegin 2.5; David Gochelashvili 3 bt Ashish Chaudhari 2; Siddhant Salunke 2 lost to Soumya Swaminathan 3. Under-13: Mysha Perwez 2 lost to Aansh Nerurkar 3; Madhesh Kumar 3 bt Advik Reddy 2; Shitiz Prasad 2 lost to Madhvendra Sharma 3; Samuel Noble 3 bt Rishen Jilowa 2; Hriday Maniar 2 lost to Shaunak Badole 3; Adhiraj Mitra 3 bt Aarav Dhayagude 2; Taseen Tadavi 2 lost to Vyom Malhotra 3; Jai Vanum 2 lost to R Nijesh 3; Sameer Shergill 2 lost to Andalamala Varshan 3; Ramesh Goutham 3 bt Johny Arixander 2; Shaashvat Gupta 2 lost to Mahir Taneja 3; Sahejveer Singh 2.5 drew with Aradhy Roy 2.5; Amber Gangwal 2 lost to Shaurya Singh 3; V tripurambika 1.5 lost to Amit Agrawal 2.5; Avirat Chauhan 2 drew with Pratyush Kumar 2; HP Angada 1.5 lost to Aadik Lenin 2.5. = = = EOM
Indian Express
09-06-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Raset Ziatdinov – Grandmaster more focused on developing Indian chess talent than on his own results
Among the 2,400 players competing at the 21st Delhi International Chess Open GM Tournament, 66-year-old Raset Ziatdinov is the lowest-rated grandmaster among the 24 featured in the event. But he has an India connection that makes him a significant visitor to competitions in the country. Currently rated just 2065, he is ranked 91st in the event, with 35 titled players and many untitled players placed well above him. Yet, Ziatdinov — an Uzbek who plays under the USA flag — is entirely at peace with life. A self-professed Indophile, he has been visiting India five to six times a year for over a decade, primarily to compete in Open events, but also to conduct training camps for young Indian chess enthusiasts, from Kerala to Rajasthan, from Hyderabad to Bhubaneswar. While he rues the loss of rating points in recent years, Ziatdinov has other motivations that keep him going. 'I lost 500 Elo points in India,' Ziatdinov says with a hearty laugh. 'I just bled rating points. But after hitting 2605 — my peak — I stopped caring about ratings,' admits the former Soviet player. Ziatdinov's brush with India media attention came in December 2024 — though not for a reason he'd boast about. He lost to nine-year-old Aarit Kapil, who made history at the KIIT International Open in Bhubaneswar as the youngest Indian (and third-youngest globally) to defeat a Grandmaster. It might have been even more discomforting for Ziatdinov to see Kapil ahead of him in the ratings and rankings at the Delhi Open. But Ziatdinov's love for India is more than evident, highlighted by his frequent visits to train promising youngsters in the sport. 'I only have happy memories in India,' he says. 'I like India very much. The people are very kind here, and they are developing chess tremendously. I conduct many camps for children in India. You have wonderful people, excellent food, and good hotels. It's very difficult to find such good conditions in other countries, especially in Europe or America, at these prices.' The veteran's connections in India run deep. 'I have many friends here… we discuss everything,.I've had many Indian students. Manisha Kiran was one of them. There's also Tanisha from Hyderabad. She's 11. We had sessions through the internet and during my camps there,' he adds. Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Odisha's first Woman Grandmaster, describes her experience: 'I had just completed my engineering degree then. We had a few online sessions back in 2012-2013. He was a player of considerable strength then, rated around 2300. Coming from Uzbekistan with a Russian chess background, his endgame knowledge was particularly strong. He helped me with opening strategies too, and I achieved some good results afterwards.' In a sport obsessed with ratings and rankings, Ziatdinov is an outlier with different motivations, but is now trying to work his way back. 'I played many games with friends who sometimes needed draws, so I'd say, 'Fine, take it,'' he says. 'Even I'm surprised by my rating drop. There was a year when I lost heavily, but now I'm recovering. I'll improve, for sure.' Ziatdinov is a man of quirks, unafraid to experiment. His approach to chess might defy convention, but that is what sets him apart from the others at the Delhi Open. Born into a sporting family — his father was a footballer for the Soviet Union — Ziatdinov inherited his competitive zeal. 'It wasn't just any team; they played in championships,' he boasts. 'But he loved chess more than I did. He'd play 24 hours nonstop. If I could do that, I'd be world champion!' his laughter crinkles his weathered face. 'I could've been like him, but I've done many things beyond chess.' A scholar of Celestial Mechanics and Dynamics of Rigid Bodies at Tashkent State University, Ziatdinov is a polymath. Before teaching mathematics there, he worked as a programmer in the United States, then as a professor at Brevard Community College and University of California, Irvine, specialising in micro-controllers. Even now, equations fill his downtime. After defeating Rajasthan's Rishen Jilowa in Round 1 of Delhi Open, he unwound with Uzbek cigarettes, black coffee, and an attempt to solve differential equations using group theory, leaving his notepad smudged. Ziatdinov writes for math journals, runs a nostalgic 90s-style Russian website chronicling his life, and is a relentless Facebook chronicler. 'My whole life is on Facebook. I've posted daily for over a decade,' he says. 'I've done many things, but chess? It is much better. Especially in India, where you play a new game every day. Today, an 11-year-old state youth champion. Too easy,' he smirks. Now well past his prime chess years — he peaked at 2605 in 1998 — Ziatdinov's journey to the Grandmaster title was quite unconventional. Though he completed all three GM norms by 1991, he didn't apply for the title until 2005. In his own words: 'I simply hadn't found time to apply earlier.' After nearly two decades in the United States, he has returned to Tashkent, heeding his mother's wish to come home. As age catches up with him, he occasionally forgets simple things, like his phone charger. 'The same thing happens in my games sometimes… I look back and don't understand why I made certain moves. I spend too much time on Facebook; perhaps I should analyse myself and my games more. But I've started doing that again now.'
