chessbase india logo

Talk of the Universe: Ganguly in conversation with Harikrishna

by Shahid Ahmed - 15/07/2020

Surya Sekhar Ganguly's youtube channel is on a roll. After having Anand and Aronian, the next guest was his childhood friend Pentala Harikrishna. Days before Harikrishna started for Biel Masters, he appeared on his friend's channel, taking a trip down memory lane and also discussing some of his brilliant games as well as his endgame prowess. We all know the super strong Harikrishna who has an endurance for the endgame. How did it develop? How did his journey begin? All those questions and many more are answered in this two-part episode where Hari's better half Nadezda Stojanovic joins Harikrishna in the second part. This two-part interview of two of the strongest Indian chess player who are friends for over two decades is definitely a must-see. Photo: Surya's youtube channel.

Childhood friends reunited

It is no secret that Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Pentala Harikrishna are childhood friends. They have traveled the world, battled, trained and shared war stories side-by-side long before technology took over and the geographical distance was made shorter due to the advent of internet. As Surya rightly points out, "Those days the number of photos we could were limited to 36. So we had to take one photo very carefully and now we spend our time in deleting photos as we can unlimited photos."

Hari's childhood, playing a game with his first trainer Muralikrishna G | Photo: Surya's stream

Two trainers who strengthened Harikrishna's base

Harikrishna's parents

Can you identify them all?

Hari-Surya friendship started long back

Harikrishna and Surya stayed in Art of Living Ashram and trained there

Archery, Billiards and Trekking are among many hobbies of Harikrishna

Hari's pets

Hari's wedding was attended by many top players of India

Can you take a guess who all are up in the air?

Hari with the Indian and Czech league team

Here are a few positions which were discussed in first of the two-part episode with Harikrishna

Tactical alertness

The first set of positions are about Harikrishna's tactical alertness

Ravi TS - Harikrishna, Calicut 2003

White to play

Harikrishna - Mamedyarov, Foros 2006

White to play

Signature moves

Surya showed some positions which he likes to call, 'Hari's signature moves'.

Harikrishna - Berkes, Hungary 2007

White to play

Harikrishna - Svidler, Dresden Olympiad 2008

White to play

Harikrishna - So, Guangzhou 2010

White to play

Harikrishna - Efimenko, Bundesliga 2013

White to play

Harikrishna - Dominguez Perez, Tata Steel 'A' 2014

White to play

Harikrishna - Nakamura, Tata Steel 'A' 2014

White to play

Replay the games

Watch Game Analysis from Episode 7

Harikrishna's brilliant wins over Mamedyarov, Svidler, So and more | Video: Surya Sekhar Ganguly

Watch the entire Episode 7

In Conversation with Episode 7: Pentala Harikrishna | Video: Surya Sekhar Ganguly

Harikrishna's Excellence

Harikrishna has played a lot of excellent chess. Nine positions were discussed in the episode 8. Here they are:

Mamedyarov - Harikrishna, Baku Olympiad 2006

Black to play

Aronian - Harikrishna, Geneva FIDE GP 2017

White to play

Harikrishna - Van Wely, Tata Steel 'A' 2013

White to play

Harikrishna - Ivanchuk, Wimbledon 2007

White to play

Karjakin - Harikrishna, Spanish Team Championship Final 2008

White to play

Harikrishna - Nihal, Tepe Sigeman 2019

Black to play

Harika - Harikrishna, Qatar Masters 2014

White to play

Harikrishna - Lalith Babu, Inter Petroleum 2017

White to play

Harikrishna - Jakovenko, Shenzhen Cup 2019

White to play

Replay the games

Watch the Game analysis from Episode 8

Harikrishna's Tactical Alertness and Endgame Endurance - Game analysis from Episode 8 | Video: Surya Sekhar Ganguly

Watch the entire Episode 8

In Conversation with 8: Harikrishna and Nadezda - 'Unity in Diversity' | Video: Surya Sekhar Ganguly

Links

Surya Sekhar Ganguly's youtube channel

Harikrishna on twitter and instagram