Srinath Narayanan was born in the year1994. This 13-year-old chess prodigy hails from Chennai, India. At the age of five, when he beat his father in a chess game, his talent in chess was acknowledged. In the year 2002, Srinath became the youngest FIDE rated chess player in India. The under-12 world chess championship, which held at Belfort, France, in July 2005, Srinath Narayanan participated and won along with three others - Sanan Sjugirov of Russia, Samvel Ter Sahakyan of Armenia and Wesley So of Philippines. A final score of 8.5 was made by all four of them. As of April 2007, his FIDE Elo rating is 2267.
When he was only eight-and-a-half years old he used to start his work in the morning at nine and used to end up at the nine in night. This little champion doesn`t even mind missing out his favored cartoons on Cartoon Network. On his own word: "Cartoons are for enjoyment and chess is my profession. I don`t miss playing outside with my friends. You know, playing chess is my profession and I want to be the best in it." His father Narayanan is a United India Assurance employee. Srinath`s enchantment for the chessboard began at the age of five on a train journey from Chennai to Mumbai.
He took part in the state under-9 tournament, a few months later, and to everyone`s surprise, he won the State championship. After that he said: "I wanted to be in the top five but what excited me was my first win against an experienced player in the fourth round. I was not thinking about winning or losing then. When the opponent made a mistake, I capitalized on that, and won the game. The fourth round win gave me a lot of confidence. But I didn`t feel sad when I lost to a senior player in the fifth round. I was not expecting to win the title. So, I was not sad losing the round, but I was not happy either." He doesn`t even sound like an intermediate child at that time.
Parimarjan Negi, the youngest FIDE-rated player in the country is from Delhi at that time. When Srinath came to know about him, he wanted to beat him for the record. Till he played his first rated tournament in the year 2002, he didn`t even know anything about FIDE rating. As this child said, "I wanted to beat Negi and become the youngest rated player, and when I became one, I felt normal; not very happy. Now, I want to be the youngest IM in India, then the youngest GM and I also want to be the youngest world champion. But I am going step by step only!" In the year 2002 he became the youngest FIDE rated chess player in India. The highest rating achieved by him was 2280. In the 5th Dubai Juniors Chess Championship held in the year 2006, he finished second behind Azerbajani IM Eltaj Safarli in a field of 146. He achieved equal ninth, in the Hastings Chess Congress (2007), scoring his first IM norm and is a FIDE Master.
His most played openings are: B 90 Sicilian, Najdorf (4 games); B-42 Sicilian, Kan (4 games); C 53 Giuoco Piano (3 games); B 07 Pirc (2 games); A33 English, Symmetrical (2 games); B 76 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack (2 games) A 57 Benko Gambit (2 games); B22 Sicilian, Alapin (2 games) and A46 Queen`s Pawn Game (2 games).
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