Surya Shekhar Ganguly

Surya at World Team 2010
Country	India
Born	24 February 1983 Kolkata, India
Title	Grandmaster
Peak rating	2672 (March 2010)

Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Bengali: সূর্য শেখর গাঙ্গুলী; born 24 February 1983, Kolkata) is an Indian chess grandmaster, 2009 Asian champion and six-time Indian champion.

He started playing chess at the age of 5 and achieved great successes at National Junior and World Junior Championships since the age of 8. He also set a record of being the youngest player to beat a Grandmaster at 11.

Ganguly became an International Master at 16 and a Grandmaster at 19. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2005 by the Government of India for his outstanding achievement in sports. He also got the "Shera Bangali" award in 2009 as the best Sportsperson of Bengal and the "Khel Samman" award in 2013 from the Government of West Bengal. He worked in the team of seconds that assisted Anand in winning the World title matches against Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Gelfand in 2008, 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Personal life

He was born to Pankaj Ganguly and Aarti Ganguly on 24 February 1983. He has an elder sister who is a doctor by profession. He is working as Deputy Manager at the Indian Oil Corporation. He got married to his childhood sweetheart Sudeshna on February 7, 2011.

Early career

Ganguly's grand father, the late Anil Basumallick, taught him chess at the age of 5. Soon he become very popular in chess circles of Kolkata as he was the youngest player in most tournaments taking place during those days and also won prizes. In 1991, at the age of 8, he won both the Indian National U-10 and U-12 Championships. He won these Championships again in 1992 and 1995.

The following are his achievements in the World Youth Chess Championship in his age categories:

• World U-10 Championship, Warsaw 1991: Won bronze medal in his first foreign trip, at the age of 8.
• World U-10 Championship, Duisburg 1992: He was leading ahead of future stars such as Grischuk, Bacrot and Vallejo Pons only to falter in the last two rounds to finish 6th.
• World U-10 Championship, Bratislava 1993: Shared bronze medal with Jakovenko, ahead of Grishchuk.
• World U-12 Championship, Szeged 1994: Shared bronze medal with Ponomariev, Vallejo Pons behind Levon Aronian and Bacrot, and ahead of Grishchuk.
• World U-12 Championship, St. Lorenzo 1995: Won silver medal behind Bacrot.

In 1995, at the age of 11, he beat a Grandmaster, the youngest player ever to do so until that time.

Notable achievements

Ganguly has played in many individual and team tournaments, both national and international. He achieved his IM (International Master) title at Goodricke International, Kolkata 2000 and the GM (Grand Master) title at the 35th Chess Olympiad, Bled 2002. Some of his notable achievements are given here.

National events

In addition to the National U10 and U12 championships mentioned above, Ganguly's achievements in other national events are as under.

• National "A": He won the Indian National Championship for a record six consecutive times from 2003-2008, after which he has stopped playing this event.
• National Team: His team won the championship in 2001, 2002 and 2007
• National Rapid 2005: Champion
• National Junior 1999/2000: Champion
• National Cities 1999: His team won the championship.
• National "B" 1999: Ganguly won this championship at the age of 16 and never looked back.

Asian events

• Asian Continental Championship: gold medal in 2009, silver in 2015 (when he tied for first with Salem A. R. Saleh, placing second on tiebreak), bronze in 2001.
• Asian Team Chess Championship: his team India won silver in 2003 and 2008, gold in 2005 (also an individual gold) and 2009.
• Asian Games 2010: played for bronze medal-winning Indian team, scoring +4=4-0 (four wins, four draws , no losses)
• Asian Indoor Games 2007: two silver medals and a gold medal.
• Asian Zonal: silver in 2001, gold in 2003 and 2007.

Olympiads and World Team 2010

• Olympiads: He has represented India in every Chess Olympiad since 2000. He won his GM title at the 35th Olympiad in Slovenia 2002 and his team India got the 6th position, the best ever, at the 36th Olympiad in Spain 2004.
• World Team Chess Championship 2010: His team India won bronze and he won the individual gold for himself.

Other international tournaments

• Member of the winning team of the Spanish League 2015, Solvay, along with teammates Pentala Harikrishna, Baskaran Adhiban, Aleksander Delchev, Sergio Cacho Reigadas, Jesus Maria De La Villa Garcia, and Elizbar Ubilava.
• 2015 Edmonton International: Equal second with Ivanchuk and Wang Hao behind the winner Harikrishna.
• 2015 Thai Open Chess Championship: Equal first with Nigel Short and Gragun Kamil ahead of Wang Hao, Vallejo Pons etc.
• O2C Doeberl Cup 2015 Premier: Equal second with Johansen behind Zhou Weiki but ahead of Van Wely etc.
• LIC 2nd International Grand Masters Chess Tournament 2015: Won this tournament in Kolkata, India ahead of Nigel Short and 25 other GM's.
• Fujairah INT Masters Tournament 2012: Won this strong Open tournament in UAE ahead of 30 GM's, including several 2700+ players such as Jobava, Le Quang, Bacrot and Moiseenko.
• Indonesia Open Chess Championship 2011: Joint winner with Li Chao, ahead of Wang Yue, Dreev, Tkachiev and others.
• Parsvanath International: After winning silver in 2008, he won gold in the tournament in 2009.
• Commonwealth Open: After winning Gold (Junior) in 2000 and 2003/2004, he went on to win Silver in the Open in 2007 and 2008.
• Sydney International 2008: Champion
• Canberra International 2008: Second
• ONGC International 2006: Champion
• Bangladesh International 2005: Champion
• Kolkata Open 2004: Joint Champion
• Amsterdam International 2004: Second
• Delhi International 2004: Joint Champion
• Gibtel International 2004: Second
• World Junior 2002: Bronze
• Goodricke International 2000: Won IM title

Team Anand

Ganguly has been a member of the team of seconds that helped Anand win his World title matches against Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand in 2008, 2010 and 2012 respectively. Other members of the team were GM Peter Heine Nielsen, GM Radosław Wojtaszek and the former FIDE World Champion GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

Anand has praised Ganguly for being very effective as a team member. About Ganguly, he says, "He is a very good chess player and analyst who works really hard. We (have worked) together for six-seven years and will work together for a long time. Why change formula when it's working."

Sample game

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

The position after 18...f4. Here white plays 19.Bh7!! Apparently, Svidler missed this move and that may be the reason he allowed Ganguly to play 15.f5.

While Ganguly is a fine positional player, he also relishes complicated positions. The following game is taken from the World Team Chess Championship 2011. Here Ganguly (white) plays Peter Svidler of Russia in the final round. Shortly thereafter, Svidler went on to win the Russian Chess Championship a record sixth time and then the Chess World Cup 2011.

This game was selected the fifth best in Chess Informant 113, with a jury member giving it a score of 10/10.

1. e4 g6 Totally unexpected from Svidler but Russia was in a must win situation! 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 a6 5. Qd2 Nd7 6. O-O-O b5 7. h4 h6 8. f4! h5 9. Nf3 Bb7 10. Ng5 Nh6 11. e5 Nb6 12. Bd3 Qc8 13. Rhf1 Nd5 Black wants to have his bishop on d5 and does not wish to play e6 at all. 14. Nce4! O-O? 15. f5! Nxf5 16. Rxf5 gxf5 17. Ng3 Nxe3 18. Qxe3 f4 19. Bh7+!! Apparently, Svidler missed this move and that may be the reason he allowed Ganguly to play 15.f5. Without this combination black is doing fine here. Kh8 20. Qd3 dxe5 21. dxe5 f6 22. Bg8! f5 23. Be6 Qe8 24. Bxf5! 1-0