Aarit Kapil’s five-grandmaster start: how to study a junior’s fearless Chola run

Aarit Kapil played five grandmasters in his first five rounds at the Chola Open. The 11-year-old FIDE Master drew the first four, then beat Shyaam Nikhil with Black in round five. ChessBase India’s round-five report put him on 3/5 without a loss at that stage.

The win is a good starting point for a replay. The four draws are worth opening too, especially if you’re trying to learn how to keep playing well against somebody whose rating makes you nervous.

Watch a draw before the win

Choose one draw from the linked report. Hide the names, ratings, and result, and pause at a position where you’d feel uncomfortable. Write down the immediate threat and two moves you might play. Check what happened before deciding whether your position was as bad as it felt.

Look at the next three moves for both sides. Perhaps the defender found a trade, or perhaps a piece you thought was passive was keeping the opponent from entering on an open file. Try to name the exact resource.

Then play through round five

Start the replay from Black’s side. Pause when you see a choice between doing something about White’s last move and carrying on with your own plan. Pick a move before you reveal Kapil’s. If your choice differs, see what each move gives White time to do.

The game score is especially useful here because it lets you compare decisions under the same conditions. You can disagree with a move and still learn why it was hard to answer over the board.

One question after your own game

After you play someone more experienced, ask where they had to stop and think. Pull that position back up together. Their answer may be a threat you never saw, or a move of yours that made their preferred plan awkward. Either way, you leave with a position you can study.

On the replay of one of the draws, note who had the easier move just before the game settled. Was there a natural trade, or did somebody have to find a precise way to keep the balance? Those are different kinds of draws, and they’re worth telling apart when you study your own games.