The story of how 12-year-old Aarav Sarbalia scored his maiden IM norm
12-year-old Bangalore talent Aarav Sarbalia achieved his maiden IM norm in Munich, Germany. Coached by GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Aarav defeated three high-rated FMs and held a couple of GMs to a draw. Currently holding a live rating between 2315 and 2320, this rising star and content creator is now setting his sights on the 2400 Elo mark and the IM title followed by GM title. We take an inside look at his journey, from his Sicilian Najdorf preparation to his unique home training setup featuring ten magnetic boards.
The Munich Breakthrough
Aarav’s achievement in Munich was a step in the right direction for the talented youngster. He remained unbeaten through the first eight rounds, effectively securing his maiden International Master norm with a round to spare. Along the way, he took down three FMs Johannes Florstedt (2389), Murat Serdar Yildiz (2373), and Kannan Vaidyanathan (2298), while holding his ground with solid draws against a couple of strong Grandmasters.
While he was relaxed after securing the norm, his competitive spirit remained; he pushed for a win in the final round but unfortunately suffered his only loss of the event after missing a move. To celebrate the milestone, Aarav and his family skipped the usual home-cooked Indian meals for a celebratory lunch at an Italian restaurant, where he enjoyed one of his favourites: pizza.
Deep Preparation: The Najdorf Sideline
One of the highlights of his tournament was a second-round victory against 18-year-old Johannes Florestedt. Aarav rates this as his favourite game from the event. Despite having limited time to prepare due to a double-round schedule (10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. games), Aarav independently researched Floret’s aggressive style and prepared a sideline in the Najdorf.
Johannes Florstedt vs Aarav Sarbalia, Round 2
Playing the Black side of a Sicilian Najdorf, Aarav employed a sharp sideline (h6 and Qb6) he had studied from Anish Giri’s Chessable course. A critical moment came when he played Ng4, a move from his preparation that involved sacrificing a pawn to gain a superior position.
A Specialized Training Environment
Aarav has a very nice training setup at home. His dedicated training room is a chess enthusiast's dream, featuring ten magnetic boards on the wall. When he was seven years old, he even created 320 magnetic pieces to use for studying various positions. The room is presided over by the portraits of his three chess idols from different eras: Bobby Fischer, Vishy Anand, and Paul Morphy. Naturally Aarav's playing style is active and aggressive inspired by these 3 stalwarts of chess!
The Road to Grandmaster
Currently coached by GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Aarav is already looking toward the next challenge. Following his IM norm, he immediately played in a stronger GM norm tournament in Munich, where he scored 3 points.
Speaking to ChessBase India Surya Ganguly, Aarav's coach said, "Aarav started as a very shy kid who would barely speak, and now stopping him from talking is probably the bigger challenge! He has a very natural positional understanding and clarity in his thoughts, even if he can sometimes be a little lazy when it comes to calculating long lines. He is a very nice and polite kid, but over the board he can become a monster if you take him lightly and allow him the initiative."
With a live rating between 2315 and 2320, his immediate goals are to cross the 2400 Elo mark and secure his remaining two IM norms. Between tournaments, Aarav continues to build his presence as a content creator, filming videos roughly once every two weeks for his growing Instagram audience.
A small quiz
In the interview with Aarav, we tested him with 4 positions from our Big Chess Summer Camp. You can try and solve them and see if you are able to crack these interesting puzzles!
Plaskett's Puzzle is a chess endgame study created by the Dutch endgame composer Gijs van Breukelen (February 27, 1946 – December 21, 2022) around 1970, although not published at the time. Van Breukelen published the puzzle in 1990 in the Netherlands chess magazine Schakend Nederland. It was presented by English grandmaster James Plaskett, at a top-flight chess tournament in Brussels in 1987, hence the name "Plaskett's Puzzle". According to contemporary accounts, of the several strong grandmasters who analyzed the position, only former World Champion Mikhail Tal was able to solve it.
