Surya Sekhar Ganguly (born 24 February 1983), is an Indian chess grandmaster. His peak ELO rating was 2676 (July, 2016). Ganguly became an

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

at the age of 16 and a grandmaster at the age of 19. He has won 40 individual gold, 21 individual silver and 6 individual bronze medals in National as well as International tournaments. He was also the captain of the Indian team in the Asian Nations Online Cup 2020 which won the 2nd place. In addition, in team competitions he has won 12 gold, four silver and three bronze medals. Some of his recent achievements are winning individual gold in Hunan International Open (2019), individual gold in World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan (2019), gold in National Team Championship Kolkata (2019), bronze in Binhai International Open, China (2018) and bronze in Asian Team Championship in both Classical and Rapid in Iran (2018). The government of India has awarded him the prestigious

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

in 2005 for his outstanding achievement in sports. He was awarded ″Bangabhusan″, the second-highest civilian award of West Bengal, in 2015. He was also awarded the "Khel Samman" award in 2013 from the Government of West Bengal and the "Shera Bangali" award in 2009 as the best Sportsperson of Bengal. He was six-time National champion (2003–2008) and Asian champion in 2009. He worked in the team of seconds that assisted

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

in winning the World Championship matches against

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

and

Boris Gelfand Boris Gelfand ( he, בוריס אברמוביץ' גלפנד; be, Барыс Абрамавіч Гельфанд, Barys Abramavich Hel'fand; russian: Борис Абрамович Гельфанд, Boris Abramovich Gel'fand; born 24 June 1968) ...

in 2008, 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Achievements

Ganguly has played numerous individual and team tournaments, both national and international. He has won total 40 individual gold, 21 individual silver and 6 individual bronze medals in National as well as International tournaments and as a member of team he has won 12 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals. 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: * National Cities 1999: His team won the championship. * National "B" 1999: Ganguly won this championship at the age of 16. * National Junior 1999/2000: Champion * National "A": He won the Indian National Championship for a record six consecutive times from 2003 to 2008. * National Team: His team won the championship in 2001, 2002 and 2007 * Gold in National 'A' 2003 * National Rapid 2005: Champion * Gold in National Team 2007 * Gold in 45th National 'A' 2008 * Gold in 46th National 'A' 2008 * Gold in National Team Championship, Kanpur, 2014 * Gold in National Team Championship, Goa, 2015 * Gold in National Team Championship Bhubaneswar, 2017 * Gold in National Team Championship Kolkata, 2018 * Gold in National Team 2019 Surya Medal Wiki

Asian events

* Bronze in Asian Continental Championship, 2001 * Asian Zonal: silver in 2001, gold in 2003 and 2007. * Asian Team Chess Championship: his team India won silver in 2003, 2007 and 2008, gold in 2005 (also an individual gold) and 2009. *

Asian Indoor Games The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (abbreviated as AIMAG) is a pancontinental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. It is organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and consists of Indoor and martial ...

2007: two silver medals and a gold medal. * Gold medal in Asian Continental Championship, 2009 *

Asian Games 2010 The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), was a regional multi-sport event celebrated from November 12 to November 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, although several events ...

: played for bronze medal-winning Indian team, scoring +4=4-0 (four wins, four draws, no losses) * Silver in Asian Continental Championship, 2015 (tied for first with

Salem A. R. Saleh Salem Abdulrahman Mohamed Saleh (born 4 January 1993) is an Emirati chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2009. Saleh competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Biography Born in Sharjah, Saleh won ...

, placing second on tiebreak). * Asian Indoor Games Bronze medal. Turkmenistan, 2017. * 4th in Asian Championship, Philippines, 2018 * Bronze in Asian Team Championship Classical, 2018 * Bronze in Asian Team Championship Rapid: Iran, 2018

Olympiads and World Team

* Individual Gold medal in World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, 2019 *

Olympiads An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

: He has represented India at six Chess Olympiads (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010). He won his GM title at the 35th Olympiad in Slovenia 2002 and his team India got the 6th position at the 36th Olympiad in Spain 2004. *

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

2010: His team India won bronze and he won the individual gold for himself.

Other international tournaments

* Goodricke International 2000: Won IM title * World Junior 2002: Bronze * Gibtel International 2004: Second * Delhi International 2004: Joint Champion * Kolkata Open 2004: Joint Champion * Amsterdam International 2004: Second * Bangladesh International 2005: Champion * ONGC International 2006: Champion * 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 * Parsvanath International: After winning silver in 2008, he won gold in the tournament in 2009. * Indonesia Open Chess Championship 2011: Joint winner with Li Chao, ahead of Wang Yue, Dreev, Tkachiev and others. * 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. * LIC 2nd International Grand Masters Chess Tournament 2015: Won this tournament in Kolkata, India ahead of

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the w ...

and 25 other GM's. * Member of the winning team of the Spanish League 2015, Solvay, along with teammates

Pentala Harikrishna Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He became the youngest grandmaster from India after attaining the title in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior ...

Baskaran Adhiban Adhiban Baskaran (born 15 August 1992) is an Indian chess Grandmaster (GM). He was the 2008 World Under-16 Champion and the 2009 Indian champion. He is currently the seventh highest rated player in India. He is widely known as the Beas ...

, Aleksander Delchev, Sergio Cacho Reigadas, Jesús de la Villa, and

Elizbar Ubilava Elizbar Ubilava (born August 27, 1950 in Tbilisi) is a Spanish chess Grandmaster (1988) of Georgian origin. He is FIDE Senior Trainer (2004) and worked with Viswanathan Anand for nine years between 1994 and 2005. He achieved his highest Elo rati ...

. * 2015 Edmonton International: Equal second with Ivanchuk and Wang Hao behind the winner Harikrishna. * 2015 Thai Open Chess Championship: Equal first with

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. * 25th Keres Memorial 2016: Equal second with Gelfand and Howell behind Kovalenko but ahead of Svidler, Vitiugov, Matlakov, Eljanov etc. * 11th Edmonton International-Main 2016: Equal first with Shankland, ahead of Shirov, Sethuraman etc. * 16th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2016: Won ahead of Vallejo Pons,

Loek van Wely Loek van Wely (born 7 October 1972) is a Dutch chess player and politician. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, and was rated among the world's top ten in 2001 with a rating of 2714. In March 2019, he was elected to the Dutch ...

, etc. * 2016 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier: Second ahead of

Hrant Melkumyan Hrant Melkumyan ( hy, Հրանտ Մելքումյան; born April 30, 1989, in Yerevan) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and European Blitz Champion in 2011. Chess career He won the international Internet championship organized by the ICC ches ...

on tie-break. * 2017 O2C Doeberl Cup Premier: Won with a score of 8/9 ahead of Krasenkow, Zhao Zong-Yuan etc. * Bronze in Binhai International Open, China, 2018 * Champion in Hunan International Open, China, 2019

Early career

Ganguly was born 24 February 1983 in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. His grandfather, the late Anil Basumallick, taught him chess at the age of 5. Soon he became 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 The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

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 Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenians, Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A ches ...

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.

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 Peter Heine Nielsen (born 24 May 1973) is a Danish chess trainer and player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. He coached world champions Vishwanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen winning World Championships in 2007, 2008, 20 ...

, GM

Radosław Wojtaszek Radosław Wojtaszek (born 13 January 1987) is a Polish chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Polish champion. Wojtaszek has acted as Viswanathan Anand's second, assisting the former world chess champion in his successful title defence match a ...

and the former

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

World Champion GM

Rustam Kasimdzhanov Rustam Kasimdzhanov; russian: Рустам Касымджанов (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998. In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhan ...

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."

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 Senior Manager at the

Indian Oil Corporation Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL; d/b/a IndianOil) is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. It is a public sector unde ...

. He married Sudeshna Dutta, a doctorate in biotechnology, on 7 February 2011. They have a daughter named Arya.

Notable games

* Anand vs Ganguly * Yu Yangi vs Ganguly * Mareco Sandro vs Ganguly * Carlsen vs Ganguly * Ganguly vs Svidler

Sample game

The following game is from 11th Edmonton International Tournament 2016, a 10-player round robin event. Ganguly (White) was paired against

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

(Black) in the last round. It was a must-win situation for both players, Ganguly to finish equal first with Shankland and Shirov to finish equal second with Ganguly. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 Bg5 12.Nc2 Rb8 13.a4 bxa4 14.Ncb4 Nxb4 15.cxb4 0-0 16.Rxa4 a5 17.h4 Bh6 18.b5 Bd7 19.Nc3 d5 20.exd5 e4 21.Be2 f5 22.d6 Kh8 23.g3 f4 24.Rxe4 Bf5 25.Re5 Qf6 26.Qd5 fxg3 27.fxg3 Qg6 28.g4 Bc8 (Diagram) 29.Ne4!! Following Gelfand's teaching that it is not important how quickly you win but it's more important how safely you win. (Boris Gelfand: Positional Decision Making in Chess, Quality Chess UK, 2016). The computer says 29.Qd4 is the fastest route but Ganguly trusts Gelfand. Bb7 30.h5 Qxe4 31.Qxe4 Bxe4 32.Rxe4 Rfd8 33.Rd4 Finally, all complications are over and White is two pawns up. While calculating 29.Ne4 Ganguly had to just make sure that he didn't lose his vital 'd6' pawn that restricts Black's activity. Bc1 34.d7 This is again the safest way as it totally restricts Black. Bxb2 35.Rd5 Rb7 36.0-0 g6 37.h6 Ba3 38.Rf7 a4 39.Re5 Rbb8 40.Bc4 Bf8 41.Kg2 a3 42.Ba2 Bd6 43.Re6 Bf8 44.b6 White will play b7 when Black will be able to move nothing but his bishop. Shirov decided not to continue any further. 1-0

References

External links

Surya Shekhar Ganguly
chess games at 365Chess.com * * Sagar Shah (2015-05-10)
"Interview with Surya Shekhar Ganguly"
ChessBase
Ganguly's Interview on Anand-Topalov Match 2010
''The Telegraph'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganguly, Surya Sekhar 1983 births Living people Chess grandmasters Indian chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Chess players at the 2010 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in chess Recipients of the Arjuna Award University of Calcutta alumni Scottish Church College alumni People from Kolkata Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games