In the world of chess, interviews are sometimes difficult to do for the players, so engrossed do they get in their own preparations. Most chess players don’t even enjoy doing it. In fact, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju refuses to do any media interactions during tournaments, unless it is specified in the pre-tournament contract. In such a world, USA grandmaster Awonder Liang is an atypical breath of fresh air.
The Chennai Grand Masters 2025 is Liang’s first big tournament in more than a year, and his constant smiles and jokes are a reminder of just how happy he is to be here. This might sound an odd thing to say about someone who’s classical ELO rating is 2696, but Liang is a finance professional aside from being a chess player.
Through his childhood and teenage years though, Liang was a pathbreaker in USA chess. In 2011, he became the youngest player from the country to have a rating of 2000 (at eight years old). In 2015, he became the nation’s youngest to become an International Masters, and then in 2017, he became a Grandmaster at the age of 14. He was well on his way to the top of this chess world.
His outlook on chess changed a few years ago, though, when he saw the pressures of trying to make it to the elite level take a toll on his mental health. “Chess is a very important part of your life, but it can’t really be everything because otherwise it’ll kind of affect how you feel on day to day. And that’s not… that’s not very healthy,” Liang tells ESPN.
Now, Liang is just trying to figure out that balance between how seriously he takes his chess but says that he may be a bit too far on the other side now. Even now, he says, he plays some local open games where the prize money may even be as low as $100. He does that because he loves chess, but you’d never see the likes of Gukesh or R Praggnanandhaa do that anymore. That’s the difference for Liang as he tries to make it to the elite.
Liang has already played Arjun Erigaisi in the opening round here in Chennai, and will play Vincent Keymer, Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi in the remainder of the tournament.
In an interaction with the media before the tournament, Liang said that a friend had told him Arjun’s rating had dropped below 2800, so he was here only to donate some rating points to him. At the time, he wasn’t prepared for his opening game to be against Arjun.
“You’ve got to be careful what you wish for,” Liang says with a chuckle, “sometimes your wishes come faster than you expect.”
He had found a good position out of the opening in that game, but made a few mistakes later, before resigning after 48 moves. “It just happened,” Liang says, “he was just a bit too good.”
That is the difference between the kind of preparation the absolute top players and what he does, he says. Liang has found some interesting opening ideas in all his games so far, but he says he hasn’t been sure of certain follow-ups after the opening. “That is down to how deeply you prepare,” he says.
Liang has watched all these top players play in elite tournaments – which they play a lot more than he does. It has been a tremendous learning curve for him to sit across the board from them. Arjun’s level of preparation and his focus on the board, Liang says, was a massive eye-opener.
“It’s a whole different experience when you’re sitting on the board and there’s kind of no one else there to help you. It’s just you against the other guy. I’m really happy because for me, I see these guys playing all the time, but I don’t really have the chance to meet them face to face, chat with them and play them especially. It’s really just been a great learning experience,” he says.
So, what is that next step for Liang? He says it is to go the extra mile and do the things he does beyond just the basics. “I think I’m the type of player that will analyse something or look for something just because I love chess, and I find it fun and interesting. But there’s an extra step of, not only you find it fun, but you’ll do the stuff that’s and you’ll do the stuff that’s maybe necessary to do, to succeed,” he says.
Liang doesn’t believe in any shortcuts, and points to his age – he’s still only 22 – to say that he still wants to go through the whole learning curve. Sharing time on the board and being able to chat with the likes of Arjun, Keymer, and Giri is not an opportunity he is taking for granted. He’s inspired by them and is hopeful that it will propel him on to the next phase of his chess career.
Will that hardwork alone be enough, though? He doesn’t know. “Maybe they’re so far ahead that it’s going to be very difficult for me to catch them. My attitude in life is always that you can’t really control the other things, right? So, you just have to focus on yourself. And have fun doing it,” he says.
No one is having as much fun just being around at the Chennai Grand Masters 2025 as Awonder Liang is.
