Singapore chess grandmaster Siddharth Jagadeesh rises from slump to win World Youth title
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Singapore's youngest grandmaster Siddharth Jagadeesh wins the World Youth Chess Championships in Albania.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VIJAY NAYUDU
Follow topic:
- Siddharth Jagadeesh, Singapore's youngest grandmaster, experienced a performance slump after achieving his title, dropping Elo rating points due to a lack of motivation.
- He rebounded by winning the World Youth Chess Championships (Under-18) in Albania, a historic victory for Singapore chess, after a tense final round and tiebreak.
- The Singapore Chess Federation hopes Siddharth's win will boost his performance at the SEA Games, where he will compete in multiple events aiming for a medal.
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SINGAPORE – After the high of attaining his grandmaster title in 2024, Siddharth Jagadeesh found himself in a slump.
The 18-year-old, who is the youngest Singaporean holding the highest chess title
He admitted that he had found himself uninspired, saying: “The dip in performance was very unpleasant for sure and I think it was caused by some sort of aimlessness and lack of motivation because I had just become a grandmaster.
“It took me quite some time to figure it out and it was a good learning process... I dropped a lot of points and am not back to my peak rating, but I think I’m a stronger and more mature player.”
With that new-found maturity, Siddharth achieved history for Singapore chess on Oct 15, when he prevailed in the Under-18 category of the World Youth Chess Championships in Durres, Albania.
The 11th seed took the lead after starting strongly with four straight wins in the International Chess Federation (Fide) event, but had to endure a nervy wait after his loss to Poland’s fourth-seeded Jakub Seemann in the 11th and final round on Oct 15.
His closest rivals, Belarusian seventh seed Artiom Stribuk, who was competing under Fide’s flag, and India’s 16th seed Sriram Adarsh Uppala, had drawn their final-round games, which meant that the trio, along with Seemann, finished on 8.5 points each.
Siddharth, who had seven wins, three draws and one loss, was then declared the winner a few hours later on a tiebreak rule as he had faced better-performing opponents under the Swiss format. The latter is designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score.
Stribuk was second, with Sriram third in the 119-strong field.
Siddharth said: “When I found out that I won the championship, it was already a couple of hours after I lost my game and I was quite relieved that I managed to still keep the top spot.
“I had been in the sole lead since round four, so to let it slip in the last round would be very disappointing.
“After I lost, of course I was very upset... I had made a huge blunder and it was clear that I would lose, so I had to resign.
“Despite being upset about the result, I was relieved that it was over and we didn’t have to play another game.”
Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) chief executive Kevin Goh called Siddharth’s win the “biggest success” for the Republic. “Very pleased and proud of Siddharth’s efforts at these U-18 world championships,” said the 42-year-old.
“He played at a really high level, led from start to finish. He might have lost the last round, but fortunately for him, his earlier results mattered and he won on tiebreaks and everyone in the Singapore chess community is truly delighted with this result.
“This is the first world youth championship that Singapore has ever won and this is the biggest success in our chess sporting history.”
Goh hopes this victory has given Siddharth a boost ahead of the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand.
He added: “It is true that Siddharth has not been having a great time exactly.
“But we have noticed that this is quite common in young players because, after achieving the high of making his grandmaster title, it is very possible to lose a bit of motivation and not know what his next goal is.
“I’m just glad that he has managed to bounce back from that because we recognise that there are formidable opponents at the SEA Games, in particular the Vietnamese team. But we are cautiously optimistic about our chances.”
Singapore's youngest grandmaster Siddharth Jagadeesh admitted that he fell into a slump after becoming a grandmaster.
PHOTO: FIDE/ALBANIA CHESS FEDERATION
Siddharth is part of Singapore’s 14-member SEA Games chess squad and will be taking part in the men’s Asean rapid team and men’s rapid doubles events at the biennial Games.
He will be looking to help the Republic improve on the two silvers and three bronzes they won at the SEA Games
Asked about his targets, Siddharth said: “I will try my best to win a medal. I think my best event would be the men’s rapid doubles, which I would be playing with our best player Tin Jingyao.
“I think I have done some good work to improve my skills in preparation for this tournament, which will help in the SEA Games.
“I will have good momentum going into the SEA Games and also some good confidence because I finally managed to get a good win.”
He will next compete at the Chess World Cup in Goa, India, from Oct 31 to Nov 27.
