BCN sends birthday wishes to IM Shreyas (known as “Shrey” by his friends) Royal born on Friday, January 9th, 2009. “Hallelujah” by Alexandra Burke was number one in the UK hit parade.

Shreyas attended The Pointer School in Blackheath, London, SE3 whose motto is “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Currently Shreyas is home schooled.

In October 2021 BCN secured an interview with Shreyas via his father Jitendra and below is mostly from that interview:

BCN: What caused his initial interest in chess and at what age?

His initial interest in chess was capturing or as he used to call it ‘eating’ pieces but as he grew more mature, he loved that there were so many possibilities in chess, so much still left to explore! At the Age of 6 he learnt and got an interest in chess.

BCN: Has Shreyas had any chess teachers or coaches?

1. Jyothi Lal N. with a peak of 2250 FIDE but is very knowledgeable and helped from just above beginner to 1800. He was Shreyas’s first coach.
2. Meszaros Gyula (Julian) who was an IM with a peak of 2465 FIDE and was an endgame master which helped him from 1800-2100.
3. His Current Coach is GM John Emms with a peak of around 2600 FIDE, he is an expert in many fields such as Positional Play, Openings, Strategic chess etc and has also made a big impact on how to prepare against opponents. He had helped him from 2100-2300 so far in just under a year!

BCN: Which chess clubs and/ or Teams does Shreyas represent?

He represents SV Erkenschwick from Germany and Wasa SK from Sweden for online events as he has joined them during the pandemic. He started his 4NCL career with KJCA Kings in January 2019 but now mainly represents Wood Green which he has played for in online events in and will also represent them in the upcoming 4NCL weekends.

His first appearance in Megabase 2022 comes from the 2015 British Under-8 Championship in Coventry, the eventual winner being Dhruv Radhakrishnan.

Progress from those early days has only been interrupted by school examination breaks and the Covid pandemic:

In August 2016 in Bournemouth Shreyas scored an impressive 6/6 to win the British Under-8 Championship.

BCN: What was his first memorable tournament success?

This was the 2016 European Schools Under-7 championship where he was runner-up without any preparation or work on chess!

In September 2017 Shreyas travelled to Mamaia in Romania and after nine hard fought rounds tied for first place with 8/9 in the European Youth Chess Championship, Under-8 with Giang Tran Nam (HUN, 1561).

In 2021 Shreyas was awarded the FM title by FIDE:

BCN: Which chess players past & present are inspirational for him?

1. Magnus Carlsen, world champion and broke many FIDE records also is an inspiration for most of this generation. He likes his slow grinding and almost winning from any opening or ending. This is his favourite player of all time.
2. Garry Kasparov played brilliant attacking chess and calculated like a machine.
3. Bobby Fischer played a similar style to Kasparov but was more talented than both Magnus and Kasparov in his opinion as he worked all by himself at a time in the USA when chess was not so popular while for the Russians, they had brilliant coaches and had one good player after the other. He rates him a bit lower because Fischer quit competitive chess a bit too early and could not reach the heights he was worthy of.
4. Alireza Firouzja
5. Fabiano Caruana

BCN: What are his favourite openings with the White pieces?

He plays 1.d4 pretty much all the time.

MegaBase 2020 has 294 games with 1.d4 and one solitary 1.g3 from March 2021. The 1.d4 games feature main line Queen’s Gambit / Catalan type positions championing 5.Nge2 against the King’s Indian Defence and the exchange variation against the Grunfeld.

BCN: and what are his preferred defences as the second player?

Really depends on what they play, against every opening he has got one or two lines which he enjoys equally.

Megabase 2022 informs us that Shreyas defends the main line Closed Variation of the Ruy Lopez and main line Giuoco Piano. Previously he essayed the Sicilian Najdorf.

BCN: Does he have any favourite chess books?

Not really as he is not such a big fan of chess books, but he likes My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer. Fundamental Chess Endings and Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations.

BCN: Which tournaments are planned for 2022?

We have pencilled in a couple of norm and Open (France, Spain, Germany etc.) tournaments in European countries.

BCN: What are his favourite subjects outside of chess?

His favourite subjects outside chess are Science, History, Maths with Science as his favourite, History as his second favourite and Maths as his third favourite.

BCN: Does Shreyas play any physical sports?

He does Football, Cricket and a bit of Lawn Tennis.

BCN: What are his plans and aspirations for the future?

To become a world chess champion one day, but it’s very expensive to even get to the level of IM! Currently we are looking for sponsors who can help support Shreyas to get there.

Here is his personal website.

In late December 2021 Camberley Chess Club had Shreyas as their weekly Zoom meeting guest speaker.

and finally three of SRs favourite games:

[pgn]
[Event “British Chess Championship Major Open”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2018.08.05”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Royal, Shreyas”]
[Black “Jayawarna, Nugith”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E70”]
[WhiteElo “1927”]
[BlackElo “2013”]
[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]
[PlyCount “57”]
[SourceTitle “Jitendra”]

{[%evp 0,57,19,17,14,-9,41,45,31,44,44,2,7,2,6,12,41,26,65,-13,27,39,44,41,87,
75,50,46,63,46,82,51,168,230,230,231,258,262,258,149,433,213,161,441,522,195,
500,527,501,169,1531,1211,1221,1268,1296,1314,1336,1370,1375,1397]} 1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nge2 {This is the Kings Indian Defence Kramer
variation} O-O 6. Ng3 e5 7. d5 c6 {I think c6 is a side-line whereas the main
line goes} (7… Nbd7 8. Be2 a5 9. h4 h5 10. Bg5 Qe8 $1 $14 (10… Nc5 $2 {
remember not to fall into this trap} 11. Bxh5 $3 {An astonishing move} gxh5 12.
Nxh5 {With pressure and an initiative} Kh8 13. Qf3 Bg4 14. Qxf6 Bxh5 15. Qxd8
Raxd8 16. Bxd8 Rxd8 17. f3 f5 18. exf5 e4 19. g4 Bf7 20. g5 Bxc3+ 21. bxc3 Bh5
22. fxe4 Re8 23. Kd2 Nxe4+ 24. Kc2 Ng3 25. Rhe1 Be2 26. f6 Kh7 27. Rg1 Re3 28.
Rae1 Kg6 29. Kb2 Nh5 30. Rgf1 Bxf1 31. Rxe3 Bxc4 32. Re7 Bxd5 33. Rxc7 Bc6 34.
f7 Kg7 35. g6 Nf4 36. h5 Ne6 37. Rc8 Nf8 38. Rxf8 Kxf8 39. h6 {1-0 (39) Ward,C
(2423)-Storey,C (2245) Coventry 2015})) 8. Be2 a6 {[#]} ({Relevant:} 8… cxd5
9. cxd5 Nbd7 10. Be3 a5 11. O-O Nc5 12. f3 Bd7 13. Nh1 Qb8 14. a4 Rc8 15. Nf2
h5 16. Bb5 Kh7 17. Nd3 b6 18. Nxc5 bxc5 19. Qd2 Rc7 20. b3 Rb7 21. Bc4 Ng8 22.
Rab1 Qd8 23. f4 exf4 24. Bxf4 Qe7 25. e5 dxe5 26. d6 Qe8 27. Be3 f5 28. Bxc5
Nf6 29. Nd5 Nxd5 30. Bxd5 Bc6 31. Rfc1 Bxd5 32. Qxd5 Rab8 33. Rd1 Rd7 34. Ba3
e4 35. Rbc1 Qe5 36. Qxe5 Bxe5 37. Rc7 Rbd8 38. Rxd7+ {Bologan,V (2640)-Kozul,Z
(2613) Doha 2016 1-0}) 9. dxc6 $146 (9. O-O b5 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Qd2 {might of
been better despite allowing b5}) ({Predecessor:} 9. O-O cxd5 10. cxd5 Nbd7 11.
Re1 b5 12. b4 Nb6 13. a4 bxa4 14. Nxa4 h5 15. Bg5 Rb8 16. Bxh5 Nbd7 17. Qd2
gxh5 18. Nxh5 Kh7 19. Ra3 Rh8 20. Rf3 a5 21. Nxg7 Kxg7 22. Bxf6+ Nxf6 23. Qg5+
Kf8 24. Rxf6 Rxb4 25. Nc3 Qc7 26. h4 Bh3 27. Re3 {1-0 (27) Bocharov,D (2610)
-Kokarev,D (2628) Vladivostok 2016}) 9… bxc6 $6 {maybe he might of been
intending d5} (9… Nxc6 {[%cal Gc6d4] I think is better}) 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3
Qc7 12. Qd2 {[%cal Ge3h6]} h5 13. O-O Be6 14. Rad1 Rd8 15. f4 Ng4 $4 {the
losing blunder} (15… exf4 {is an improvement in my opinion} 16. Bxf4 Nbd7)
16. f5 $1 Nxe3 17. Qxe3 $18 Bc8 $4 (17… Qa7 18. c5) 18. fxg6 fxg6 19. Qg5 Kh7
$6 {[#]} 20. Bxh5 $3 (20. Nxh5 $1 {also wins} Bh6 (20… gxh5 21. Bxh5 Qa7+ 22.
c5 Qxc5+ 23. Kh1 Rd7 24. Qg6+ Kg8 25. Qe8+ Kh7 26. Bg6+ Kh6 27. Bf5) 21. Nf6+
Kg7 22. Qg3) 20… gxh5 21. Nxh5 Ra7 {[#]} 22. Rf6 $1 Qb6+ (22… Bxf6 23.
Nxf6+ Kh8 24. Qg8+) 23. Kh1 Re7 24. Rdf1 (24. Rg6 {is mate in six!} {as follows
} Kh8 25. Nf6 Qc7 26. Qh5+ Bh6 27. Rxh6+ Kg7 28. Qg6+ Kf8 29. Rh8#) 24… Qc7
25. Rh6+ Bxh6 26. Nf6+ Kh8 27. Qxh6+ Rh7 28. Nxh7 Qxh7 29. Qf6+ 1-0
[/pgn]

and from more recent times:

[pgn]
[Event “First Saturday IM July 2021”]
[Site “Budapest, Fortuna u. 4. St. G”]
[Date “2021.07.27”]
[Round “2.4”]
[White “Royal, Shreyas”]
[Black “Ilincic, Zlatko”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E11”]
[WhiteElo “2168”]
[BlackElo “2395”]
[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]
[PlyCount “95”]
[EventDate “2021.??.??”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.06.03”]

{[%evp 0,95,19,31,14,-14,-11,0,31,34,64,65,61,30,46,45,45,42,73,34,54,28,18,26,
45,50,48,40,39,41,36,26,37,39,58,43,39,16,19,17,22,9,17,9,22,-9,29,24,41,23,
119,119,130,126,212,208,256,229,200,221,222,222,222,222,224,139,167,157,206,
205,206,207,206,240,237,204,253,282,295,284,299,286,317,313,323,334,380,403,
438,451,483,493,488,524,545,511,520,556]} 1. d4 {this is my first win against
a grandmaster in OTB chess and is a brilliant positional game} Nf6 2. c4 e6 3.
Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 c5 5. Bxb4 cxb4 6. a3 {this was part of my preparation, I had
played him 2 times before with g3 and a delayed a3 but with no success, he
would always prepare a different line against it so this time I needed to get
him out of his comfort zone} bxa3 7. Rxa3 O-O 8. Nc3 d6 9. e3 ({Relevant:} 9.
e4 Nc6 10. Be2 b6 11. O-O Bb7 12. d5 Nb4 13. Nd4 e5 14. Nf5 g6 15. Nh6+ Kg7 16.
Qd2 Qe7 17. Qg5 Bc8 18. h4 Nc2 19. Ra2 Nd4 20. Bd3 Qd8 21. f4 Nd7 22. Nf5+ Nxf5
23. exf5 Nc5 24. Bb1 Qxg5 25. hxg5 gxf5 26. fxe5 dxe5 27. Bxf5 a5 28. Bc2 Bd7
29. Raa1 Rac8 30. Rae1 Rfe8 31. Re3 e4 32. Bxe4 Re5 33. Ref3 Nxe4 34. Rxf7+ Kg6
35. Nxe4 Rxe4 36. Rxd7 Rcxc4 37. Rd6+ Kxg5 38. Rxb6 Re2 {Banikas,H (2599)
-Cordova,E (2592) Chess.com INT 2020 1/2-1/2 (61)}) 9… b6 (9… Nc6 10. Be2
e5 11. O-O Bg4 {is the the most popular and probably one of the best ways to
play against it}) 10. Be2 Bb7 11. O-O a6 {this structure was not the greatest
way to deal with this} 12. b4 $1 {I had seen some structures similar like
this, when preparing and realized we needed to make use of our queenside
majority} Nbd7 13. Qb1 {[#] I was just asking myself, where do I want my
pieces? It can really help improve your chess if you care about pieces and
always want to improve them, the arrows showed what I wanted my setup to be
like} Qc7 $146 ({Predecessor:} 13… Qb8 14. Rd1 Rc8 15. e4 a5 16. Rb3 axb4 17.
Rxb4 Ra3 18. Rc1 Ra5 19. d5 e5 20. Nd2 Ra8 21. Na4 Qc7 22. Nxb6 Nxb6 23. Rxb6
Rcb8 24. Rc2 Nd7 25. Rb4 Bc8 26. Rcb2 Rxb4 27. Rxb4 g6 28. Nb3 Kg7 29. Bg4 Nc5
30. Bxc8 Nxb3 31. Rxb3 Qxc8 32. Rc3 Ra4 33. Qf1 Qc5 34. Rc1 Ra2 35. g3 h5 36.
Qe1 Rb2 37. h4 Ra2 38. Kf1 Kf6 39. Rc3 Kg7 40. Qe3 Qxe3 41. fxe3 Kf6 42. c5
dxc5 43. Rxc5 {Parligras,M (2601)-Anton,T (2412) Calimanesti Caciulata 2017 1/
2-1/2}) 14. Rc1 Rfc8 15. Nd2 Qb8 {[#]} 16. f3 $1 {Not only is it important to
improve your pieces but it is also important to make your opponent’s pieces
unhappy. I just blunt is potentially dangerous bishop especially when he gets
his queen to a8 it also stops some nasty Be4 or ne4 when my knight gets to b3}
Rc7 (16… d5) 17. b5 a5 18. Na4 Qf8 19. Rac3 Rac8 20. Nb3 e5 {if he just sits
there and waits I just play R3c2 (to stop Nd5 when c5 happens) and c5} 21. Qb2
$1 {this is a fantastic move because it brings my queen back to the king with
Qd2 and stops some potential Qe3+, it also protects my e2 bishop. When the
queen is far away from the king it can be dangerous} Qe7 22. Qd2 g6 23. R3c2 h5
24. c5 $1 {and finally, after a lot of manoeuvring I get my c5 break in} exd4
$2 (24… dxc5) 25. c6 $18 dxe3 26. Qd1 Nc5 27. Nxb6 Rd8 28. cxb7 Rxb7 29. Nd5
$1 Nxd5 30. Qxd5 Nxb3 31. Qxb3 d5 32. Rc8 d4 33. Qd3 Qd7 34. R8c6 Rdb8 $2 (
34… Kg7) 35. Qc2 (35. R1c5) 35… Kg7 36. Qc5 Rd8 37. Qe5+ Kg8 38. Bc4 Qf5
39. Qxf5 gxf5 40. Bd3 $18 {[#]} f4 41. Kf1 Kg7 42. R1c5 a4 43. Ra6 Re8 44. Ke2
h4 45. Rxa4 h3 46. gxh3 Rh8 47. Rxd4 Rxh3 48. Rxf4 {Probably my best game of
all time} 1-0
[/pgn]

and finally:

[pgn]
[Event “Vezerkepzo IM Aug 2021”]
[Site “Budapest, Fortuna u. 4. St. G”]
[Date “2021.08.23”]
[Round “3.3”]
[White “Royal, Shreyas”]
[Black “Rohit, S.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E01”]
[WhiteElo “2296”]
[BlackElo “2268”]
[Annotator “Shreyas Royal”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “2021.08.21”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “HUN”]
[SourceTitle “Jitendra”]
[SourceDate “2018.06.03”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.06.03”]

{[%evp 0,53,19,9,42,-10,-16,0,-3,-37,13,6,29,25,20,13,57,36,38,38,52,58,58,72,
72,14,61,23,54,62,58,58,66,52,45,54,78,25,117,123,110,110,146,37,30,44,51,49,
55,13,217,159,236,245,1807,839]} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2
({Relevant:} 5. Nbd2 O-O 6. Bg2 b6 7. O-O Bb7 8. Ne5 a5 9. Qc2 a4 10. Rd1 Bd6
11. cxd5 exd5 12. Ndc4 h6 13. Bf4 Re8 14. Rac1 Na6 15. a3 Bf8 16. Ne3 c5 17.
Nf5 cxd4 18. Nc6 Qd7 19. Bh3 Kh8 20. Ne5 Rxe5 21. Bxe5 Ne4 22. Bxd4 Rc8 23. Qd3
Nac5 24. Qe3 Kh7 25. Bxc5 Nxc5 26. Qf3 d4 27. Rxd4 Qe8 28. Qe3 Qc6 29. f3 Re8
30. Qf2 g6 31. Ne3 Qf6 32. Ng4 Qg7 33. Rcd1 h5 34. Ne3 Nb3 {Dubov,D (2702)
-Carlsen,M (2862) chess24.com INT 2020 1-0}) 5… Bd6 6. Nc3 $5 {This was all
part of my preparation as last time I got some equal Stonewall against him,
this line avoids the stonewall and is tricky to play against as black. Black
needs to very accurate to still get a slightly worse position} O-O (6… c6 $6
7. Qc2 $16 {[%cal Ge2e4,Ge1c1] and now we open the centre and try to
long-castle}) 7. Bg5 c6 8. Bg2 Nbd7 (8… h6 9. Bxf6 Qxf6 10. O-O Qd8 11. c5
Bc7 12. e4 {[%cal Gb2b4] is the main line if he knew I was going to play this,
Nc3 is not so common but effective. Even here we are better because of our
space, centre and better pieces. Our idea now is to do some minority attack})
9. e4 $1 dxe4 10. Nxe4 {[#]} Bc7 $146 {this was not the right square to move
the bishop to, the best move was Bb4+ but even if he did not see that I would
expect Be7 as the pin became very nasty} (10… Bb4+ 11. Nc3 {and once we
fully develop our better pieces and space will give us an advantage}) ({
Predecessor:} 10… Bb4+ 11. Nc3 h6 12. Bf4 Ne4 13. Qc2 Nxc3 14. bxc3 Be7 15.
O-O b6 16. Rfe1 Bb7 17. Rad1 Re8 18. h4 Qc8 19. Bh3 Nf8 20. Ne5 Bd6 21. Qd2 Qc7
22. Bg2 {1/2-1/2 (22) Cordova,E (2571)-Nyzhnyk,I (2665) Saint Louis 2019}) 11.
O-O h6 12. Bh4 $1 Qe7 ({No need to be scared of} 12… g5 $2 13. Nfxg5 $1 hxg5
14. Bxg5 {[%cal Gd1f3,Ga1d1,Gd4d5,Gf1e1] and the pin will be nasty, along with
an exposed king}) 13. Re1 {[%cal Ge1e7] put the rook in line in with the queen
is a normally a good idea} Qb4 $2 {he collapses, but on the other there was
not much better to do because of the pin and I may get some d5 in later} 14.
Nxf6+ Nxf6 15. Bxf6 gxf6 16. Qc1 $1 Kg7 17. c5 $1 {this was a really nice move
because normally when the queen is away from the king the king is in MASSIVE
danger and just before I get along with my attack, I cut of her communications
with the king} Bd8 18. Qf4 Qa5 19. Qg4+ Kh7 20. Qh5 Qc7 21. g4 Kg7 {[#]} 22.
Re3 $1 {I have a lot time and can just slowly improve my pieces, another good
principle is when attacking try to bring in as much pieces as possible} Qd7 23.
Rd1 $1 Bc7 24. Rdd3 $1 b6 $2 {[#] this was not so stupid because he can’t just
sit and wait but on the other hand he could of just turned his prophylactic
brain on… I am now preparing a killer blow} (24… Rh8 {was better}) 25. g5
$3 {I had prepared this move from when I played Rd1} hxg5 (25… fxg5 26. Nxg5
Bf4 27. Rg3 $1) 26. Nxg5 Re8 (26… Rh8 {he thought this would work but…} 27.
Nxe6+ $1 Qxe6 (27… fxe6 28. Rg3+ Bxg3 29. Rxg3+ Kf8 30. Qxh8+ Ke7 31. Rg7#)
28. Rg3+ Bxg3 29. Rxg3+ Kf8 (29… Qg4 30. Rxg4+ Bxg4 31. Qxg4+ Kf8 32. Bxc6)
30. Qxh8+ Ke7 31. Re3) 27. Bxc6 $1 1-0
[/pgn]

From September 9-14, 2022, Shreyas achieved his first IM norm at the Mindsports GM Tournament in London and earned his second norm, along with a joint 3rd, at the Hit-A-Open Tournament in Slovenia between September 16-22, 2022

At the 4th FIDE Congress of 2022 Shreyas was awarded the IM title and his FIDE standard play rating stands at 2456.

Most recently he has achieved his first GM norm.

Further background here from Leonard Barden.