SGChess Blog #3 – Road to GM: IM Siddharth Jagadeesh’s account of his quest to become Singapore’s next Chess Grandmaster

IM Siddharth Jagadeesh became Singapore’s 2nd youngest IM in our history just last year in 2022. Sidd has now set his sights higher and dreams of becoming a GM within the next 2 years. This blog will feature his story as he embarks on an arduous but fulfilling journey. I hope our readers will enjoy his insights and you can ask Sidd any questions by sending an email to sgchessblog@singaporechess.org.sg

A couple of months ago, I travelled to play 3 consecutive GM norm tournaments in Budapest, Hungary within a span of three weeks. Up to this point, I hadn’t been too close to making a norm in any tournament. The closest I got was in a tournament in Italy last year, where I had to beat Andrey Esipenko on demand with the black pieces. Unfortunately, I lost that game quite quickly.

A score of 7/9 was required to make a GM norm in these tournaments. In the first tournament in Budapest, I started off well with a win against the top seeded GM with Black, but followed that up with a loss and three draws which squashed my norm chances. I ended the tournament with 3 points out of the last 4 rounds and gained some rating, but I still wasn’t getting close to the GM norm.

The second tournament started the very next day after the end of the first, and I started badly by failing to convert a completely winning queen endgame with white. After this game, my luck seemed to take a complete turn. My second round opponent was dominating me throught the game in a passive King’s Indian that I played with black, but he unexpectedly blundered an elementary tactic after four hours of play which lost him the game instantly. I then won the next two games very comfortably which game me a great score of 3.5 points through the first four rounds. I slowed down considerably in the next three rounds, as I drew all of those games. This put me in a position where I had to win the next two games on demand to make the norm. The following game was played on the first of those must-win games.

This was a good win for me, and it put me one step closer to making the GM norm. All I had to do was to win the final game with white against GM Sahaj Grover to finish the job. The game started well as I managed to get a huge advantage from the opening, but I made several inaccuracies and the game ended in a draw.

Editor’s note: Siddharth managed to earn his first GM norm a few days later – More to come in Part 2!