Nihal Sarin is popularly known as the ‘Speed Demon’ for his affinity to the faster formats of chess. It’s evident from how even Magnus Carlsen rates him. Before the eSports World Cup, Carlsen made it a point to mention just how good Nihal could be in the faster time controls. Heading into the 2025 Chennai Grand Masters, however, the focus shifted to Nihal’s classical chess. “He has certainly stagnated,” his former trainer Srinath Narayanan told ESPN after Nihal lost his third-round match against Vidit Gujrathi.
That was a result that left Nihal with half a point out of three games. He should have been on 2.5, at least, most would argue, having thrown away winning positions against both Anish Giri in the second round and Vidit in the third round, while he should’ve comfortably drawn the endgame against Vincent Keymer in the opening round, before losing it.
It is because of that stagnation that Nihal has now turned to GM Vishnu Prasanna, the man who shaped the career of world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, and was his trainer until Grzegorz Gajewski took over in 2022. Vishnu has been working with Nihal since March this year, and his focus has been on improving Nihal’s classical rating, and to get him to do well in the FIDE Grand Swiss and the FIDE World Cup later this year.
Vishnu calls Nihal a very unique talent. He says he has never seen any player approach chess or train chess in the way that Nihal does. “We’re trying to figure out what can we do to make him show results based on the way he approaches chess, based on his talent,” Vishnu told ESPN.
Compared to the work that Vishnu did with Gukesh, shaping his entire career from a really young age, this is a challenge for him, one that he has found very interesting so far. The biggest difference is the computer. Vishnu didn’t really train Gukesh with engines up until he was almost at the elite level. He says Nihal’s training is based on playing online games.
A swift look at Nihal’s chess.com profile tells you a story. He has played 55,282 games on chess.com overall. 22,823 of those games have been in bullet chess, a quick one-minute format. For a swift comparison, Carlsen, for example, has only played a tad more than 3,000 bullet games overall on chess.com. Nihal is addicted to chess, and playing quick games is his forte. It translates into how good he is in those faster time controls. Vishnu feels Nihal has the ability to find his way out of any difficult situations in speed chess, which is why the partnership is now focused on classical chess
“I have to adapt to Nihal. Definitely, there’s a lot of talent. I’ve never seen someone like him. But we’re seeing how to make it more practical, how to turn that talent into results,” Vishnu says.
Srinath puts Nihal’s recent stagnation in classical chess down to a lack of confidence and self-belief. He says that from being the leader of his pack of peers a few years ago, Nihal has now seen the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi progress beyond him, and that has certainly had an impact on his confidence. From that generation, Erigaisi has already hit 2800 ELO rating in classical, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh are in the high 2700s, Nihal hasn’t yet hit 2700 ELO in classical chess in his career. He quickly went from prodigy to the cusp of elite, but hasn’t quite been able to make that big jump.
“It is important to look forward, you cannot keep looking backwards. Stagnation is natural for someone so young at the elite level, but the next push can come only with confidence,” Srinath says.
In all his three games in Chennai, the commentators have been impressed with Nihal’s preparations, his openings have put pressure on opponents, trying to take them away from conventional theory. He succeeded in getting superb positions through the middle game against both Giri and Vidit. Clearly, the work that he’s putting in with Vishnu has borne some fruits already. He’s not being outplayed.
That is where Vishnu is trying to channel Nihal’s incredible natural ability and instinct, which enables him to play so well in the faster formats. The youngster from Thrissur is in safe hands, he just needs a bout of confidence injected into him, which will perhaps come with a few wins in the last six rounds of the Chennai Grand Masters.
