Krishnan Sasikiran Profile

Krishnan Sasikiran is an Indian Chess Player who holds the prestigious title of a Grand Master, and is famous for being second only to the legendry Vishwanathan Anand according to the FIDE ratings.

Early Life & Introduction to the game of Chess
He was born on the 7th of January 1981 at Chennai, the state capital of Tamilnadu. His father, Mr. Krishnan had himself remained an excellent Chess Player in his times, and had been the first Coach of the International Master Sundararajan Kidambi, a yet another commendable Chess Player from India. Receiving Chess in his genes from his father, Sasikiran picked up the game of Chess at a relatively later age and began playing the game when he was 9 years old.

Performance at National Chess Circuit
Under the able guidance of his father, Sasikiran soon started rising upon the Domestic Chess Circuit and won the Under-18 National Chess Championship. Apart from the title, he played quite well at various other tournaments also, and won in a number of domestic Chess Championships as well. Krishnan won his first Indian National �A� Chess Championship in the year 1999.

Performance at International Chess Circuit
Sasikiran made his debut in the arena of International Chess in the year 1995, when he played a match against Tomas Oral of Czech Republic. Krishnan lost the game after 31 moves. Soon he showed his prowess at the International level when he clinched the Under-18 title at the Commonwealth Games. He won the British Under 21 Chess Championship twice, and represented the Indian National Chess team at the Elista Chess Olympiad 1998. At the event, Krishnan scored 8.5/11 points on the 4th Board. The same year he got his first Grand Master norm when he finished 6th at the British Open tournament held at Torquay. Afterwards, he won the Andorra Open Chess Tournament and the Balaguer Open Chess Tournament held in Spain. He managed to finish at 3rd place at Benasque Open Chess Tournament 1998. In the year 1999 he won the Asian Junior Chess Championship.

The Golden Year
In the year 2000, he grabbed the Gold Medal at the Pentamedia Category XI Grand Master Tournament held at Chennai. The same year, he earned his 2nd norm for the Grand Master title at Asian Chess Championship held at Udaipur, and also the 3rd norm for the prestigious title at the Goodricke International Open Chess Tournament held at Kolkata, finally getting himself the coveted title of International Grand Master at the age of 19 years. In the year 2001 he bagged the prestigious Hastings Chess Tournament and repeated the victory at the tournament again in 2002. Krishnan also won the Asian Chess Championship the same year.

Beating the King of Chess
In the year 2002, Krishnan created a stir by defeating fellow Indian Chess Player and undisputedly the best Chess Player India has ever produced � Vishwanathan Anand during the World Cup Chess tournament. Further, he won the Gold Medal at the Politiken Cup held at Copenhagen, Denmark. In the year 2005 he tied with Jan Timman for the Gold Medal at Sigeman Tournament held at Copenhagen.

Crossing the Big Mark
In January 2007, Krishnan Sasikiran reached a FIDE rating of 2700, and became the second Indian Chess Player ever after Vishwanathan Anand to cross the 2700 mark. He won the Najdorf Memorial Chess Tournament in the year 2008 with a total score of 6.5/9. The same year, he emerged a winner at the 18th Pamplona International Chess Tournament with a total score of 5/7 points. He was included among the Top 20 Chess Players of the world according to FIDE ranking till January 2009.

Awards & Honors
To commemorate his excellent skills as a Chess Player and his consistent efforts that brought laurels to the nation, Krishnan Sasikiran was bestowed upon the prestigious Arjuna Award by the Government of India in the year 2002.