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From countless online games, Sarin seeks improvement in classical

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @ Chennai

NIHAL Sarin is addicted to chess. One view at his profile on chess.com and it's fairly obvious. As of Saturday evening, he has played over 55,000 games on that platform alone. It also brings about his tendency to feature in speed chess (bullet or blitz). He's one of the best in the world in the quickest time controls but it can come in the way of his Classical preparation.

It's kind of why Sarin, who became a GM a month after turning 14 in August 2018, approached Vishnu Prasanna at the back end of last year.

Prasanna, one of several super coaches from this part of the country, considered Sarin's request before saying 'yes'. "We met at Global Chess League (GCL) last year," Prasanna, who worked with D Gukesh for a long time, said. "I have been working with him since March and we have had decent results. Right now, we are looking to see what we can do at the World Cup, Grand Swiss and generally get his ratings (in Classical) higher. That is my main goal."