How to win a World Championship title the really hard way

GM Siddharth Jagadeesh gave the Singapore chess fans the ultimate type of chess result they craved for by winning the World Youth Under 18 title. What more can we really ask for, after Singapore hosted the World championship final match between Ding Liren and Gukesh?

Siddharth had led from start to finish, seizing a half point lead by round 4 after winning all his games. He extended the lead to 1 point up to round 8, and maintained a half point margin ahead of his chasers up till the final round.  The little cushion was enough for him to absorb a final round loss to IM Jakub Seemann as his nearest challengers IMs  Artiom Stribuk (FIDE) and IM Adarsh Uppala Sriram (India) could only draw their final games. The 4 way tie for 1st place (Seemann was the other guy on 8.5/11 of course) was decided by the Bucholz Cut 1 tiebreak as as Siddharth had met the highest scorers in the 11 rounds, he edged out the other three to become World Youth Champion.  In case you think that a 4 way tie is astounding, check out the U16 category where there was an 8 way tie for 1st.

Sounds like a cinch, doesn't it...like the sprinter who blasted past the field and slowed down towards the end with just enough to nudge the photo finish result.  And also, as a GM, he was supposed to outdo the IMs, right?

Not quite - there were 2 other GMs in the battlezone, and Sidd was seeded 11th in 119 player-strong field. So there were no easy opponents for him.  

OK, for the first 8 rounds, he was in cruise control, brandishing very well-prepared openings which time and time again hit the mark with powerful finishing to secure the points required.

Two specific examples to show - 

However, in round 9, he faced Sriram, who was in fiery form too, and had defeated the top seed, GM Klimkoswski in the previous round. GM Kevin Goh, the Singapore Federation CEO had predicted that this was going to be a very tough opponent for Sidd to handle and he wasn't wrong.  Sidd mistimed a promising attack and Sriram was close to consolidating. But Sidd went into full hustle mode, sacrificing a rook and bishop to get a ton of centre pawns to confuse the Indian. White's king was also trying its best to make its way to queenside safety. Sidd stepped up the pressure by jettisoning the a-pawn as well and the attack nearly worked before mutual errors leading to perpetual check meant a fighting draw ensued.

So after nearly giving every supporter watching a near heart attack, Sidd maintained his slender lead. A solid Round 10 draw with Stribuk put him in pole position for the final game. 

Kevin had gathered a team of National players (preparing for the year end SEA games) for a watch party...nothing special really, except they had to be ready to hang out past midnight after the World Youth matches have ended. He made a horrible joke that the outcome might very well be Sidd losing the game but Board 2 and 3 drawing theirs and Sidd winning on tiebreak. I'm sure he got some dirty looks there...

Siddharth had played very solidly and actively to gain a good middlegame. However, here, he missed a chance to wrap up the game here.

Here Sidd missed 18....Nxf4!! 19 gxf4 Rxe1 20 Rxe1 Qxf4 21 Re3 Bh3+! (even 21...Bg4 is good) 22 Kh1 and 22...Bg4 practically ends all resistance.

Well, it's two humans playing out there, not engines, so under time pressure to reach move 40 (where 30 more minutes will be added), anything goes. However, he played more and more tentatively and our worst fears were realized. In the following position,

he erred with 27...Bxd4 28 Qxd4 Bxb5?? and Seemann whipped out the bone-crushing 29 Bxg6! and Sidd had to lay down his arms. 

Were our aspirations dashed? There was still a glimmer of hope as Klimkowski had forced Stribuk to deliver perpetual check. So now 3 fellas were in the clubhouse with 8.5/11. We had no idea how things were going on Board 3 as the other contender Sriram's game was not broadcasted (probably transmission issues). Kevin made a long distance call to Sidd and found out that Sriram was still pressing his opponent IM Habans. The only good news we had at that point was that Kevin had worked out that all of Siddharth's prior opponents had either won or drawn their games, meaning that he will gain Bucholz points from every one of them for Round 11.  1 hour later, Kevin was informed by his FIDE contacts that Board 3 ended in a draw as well. So we have a big 4 way tie for 1st position and it's down to tiebreaks. Kevin and the watch party were quietly confident. Sidd had faced all the 8.5 pointers in the last 3 rounds and as mentioned earlier, all his opponents had scored in Rd 11. It took one hour more before it was confirmed that Sidd had the superior tiebreak and has become the 2025 World Youth U18 champion!

Back in July, if you said that Sidd has a chance of medalling at the World Youth, you would have gotten some raised eyebrows. After making his GM title, his rating had plummeted from 2515 to 2467. He was trying his darnest but nothing was working. Basically, he got into what in sports psychology is known as the 'Gold medal syndrome', which is what top sportsmen experience when they fulfilled their sporting lifelong ambition. The feeling of emptiness and the loss of purpose set in and Sidd just could not summon the same playing level he had attained when chasing the GM title. Anxiety, burnout and self-doubt crept in after yet another loss and  the emotional crash gets more and more overwhelming. 

Kevin knew something had to be done to put him back on track. He had a long meeting with Sidd (and got GM Tin Jingyao involved too) about what he needed to do to stay locked in and get motivated again. Sidd was hauled back to train in SCF daily and clear goals had to be set for him to focus on life after GM title. Jingyao immediately said he will join in the training and they started putting in the serious work like working all day long on Encyclopedia of Chess Endings positions. 

With this renewed focus, the confidence returned. His father remarked "Thanks to SCF, specifically to GM Kevin for forcing back Siddharth on a chess recovery path after almost a year of decline in form" and  "In Siddharth himself - we found genuine hard work over the past entire month locking himself up in practice to reverse the slump".  

I don't know much about the 'Village raising a son' thingy but it's clear you need the whole eco-system to work to have a chance at generating sporting success . This means the federation sponsorship for strong events, sports psychology, consultation with federation chief, serious training, self belief, emotional support and encouragement from managers, parents, trainers, team-mates and most importantly, one's own ability to climb out of the psychological ditch.  

Here's Siddharth receiving his World Youth Champion trophy. Not every day you hear the Singaporean National Anthem played in a world championship event!

Video credit - Vijay Nayudu

The celebration has just begun as Kevin amassed a 40 strong delegation to meet the World Youth Champion at Changi Airport this afternoon. 

The Straits Times newspapers also covered this monumental achievement and Sidd's feat made the headlines. 

You can also read the online version of the writeup by the ST Chess columist Mervyn Teoh here.

We certainly hope that this isn't the end of the journey and that both Jingyao and Siddharth can do the nation proud once again with fighting chess at the Goa World Cup! And of course, that our juniors will be inspired to push as hard as these two Singaporeans to train diligently and achieve high level sporting success.

Here are my reports on Siddharth's past achievements.

  12 year old Siddarth Jagadeesh makes IM norm in the ultra-strong Grenke Open.

More European successes for Singaporean lads

The agony of defeat and the thrill of victory...How Singapore's youngest GM did it in style