The 4th edition of the Llobregat Open Chess Tournament is just a few days away. To warm up the engines, we inaugurate a series of analysis of exceptional players, and of unrepeatable games, who have passed through our tournament.
The young Indian Aditya Mittal, who participated in the third edition of the El Llobregat Open Chess Fort, is one of the great promises of chess. He is close to surpassing 2600 FIDE Elo points, since to his current 2577 points must be added the 18.4 he achieved this November by winning the Pavlodar Open, in Kazakhstan, quite a feat at 17 years of age.
The Delhi-born grandmaster’s sporting objectives are focused on passing the next Elo barrier, 2700, by entering the world elite. He has been going around the world for some time with his mother and, soon, we will be able to enjoy his chess again in the fourth edition of El Llobregat Open Chess.
The affable Mittal had a serious health mishap as a child and, possibly influenced by this, has made his resilience on the board his personal trademark, a symbol of a maturity unbefitting his age. Proof of this is the game reproduced below, belonging to the 3rd round of the Qatar Masters Open 2023, in which he earned a valuable draw playing the Sicilian Defense against the player from the Netherlands, Anish Giri, at that time number 7 in the world ranking. On the 0 – 100 scale of accuracy compared to computers, Mittal scored a brilliant result of… 99.1!
The Indian, besides being an excellent conversationalist, has very good singing skills. I recommend that you search YouTube for his version of the ballad “Tum Hi Ho” (Arijit Singh): his voice reconciles the bicolor mystique of chess with the indissoluble binary nature of love. Aditya sings as he plays, flows in harmony with the meaning of the composition.
By Jorge I. Aguadero Casado, editor-in-chief of Peón de Rey.
