Column | Indian chess comes of age

Even as India were lording over Bangladesh in the first Test of the ongoing series at Chepauk, Chennai, an event having great importance for Indian sports took place in faraway Budapest. The Indian chess players did the nation proud by winning gold medals in the Open and women's events at the Chess Olympiad. The significance of this victory was such that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the victorious teams at his residence in Delhi and congratulated the players individually on their terrific achievement.

Chess Olympiad is a biennial championship conducted by International Chess Federation, popularly known by its French acronym FIDE. The first official Olympiad was held in 1927 in London. Though this was held every year till 1931, the schedule was changed to having this on a biennial basis after that year. This tournament did not take place during the period between 1939 and 1950 on account of World War ll. The championship was not disrupted during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when the matches were held online. Chess Olympiad featured only men till 1976, when a separate championship for women was started. The winner on the men’s side is awarded the Hamilton-Russell Cup while the champion ladies team wins the Vera Menchik Trophy.

India’s double triumph in Budapest carries an additional relevance in that this was fashioned by a group of youngsters. Further, the performance of the men’s team was as close to a perfect one as possible, with the side winning 10 out of 11 games and one ending in a tie to finish with 21 out of a maximum 22 points. This placed them a full four points ahead of the next side, a clear demonstration of the overall superiority that the side held over other teams. The women’s team, though seeded first, did not have an equally smooth progress, with there being the odd defeat to Poland. However, the side came good when it mattered the most and came out on top in the final round to clinch the gold. The individual gold medals that D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal won added lure to India’s overall performance.

The stars of the Indian men's side were Gukesh, Arjun, and R Praggnanandhaa. The 18-year-old Gukesh, who possesses a FIDE international ranking of 7, took the top board in critical matches against the US and China. His win against world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana of the US and Wei Yi of China helped India overcome these two tough teams in their march towards the title. Gukesh’s encounter against Ding Liren of China in the final of the World Chess Championship has raised such excitations that it will be followed by connoisseurs of this sport around the world.

Arjun, aged 21, holds the FIDE ranking of No. 4, making him the highest-ranked Indian player. His splendid performances during the championship saw him move up the FIDE ratings by 19 points to 2,797, just marginally behind American Hikaru Nakamura (2802 points) and  Caruana, (2795 points), who were ranked No.2 and 3 respectively before the Olympiad. One expects Arjun to continue his upward march and not only displace Nakamura  but also pose a challenge to the top-ranked Magnus Carlsen in the near future.

The 12th-ranked Praggnanandhaa (aged 19) and his  23-year-old sister R Vaishali (world rank No. 12 among women) are the most famous chess siblings in the country. Praggnanandhaa had blazed a trail of glory in this sport right from his childhood days, when he won the World Under-8 championship in 2013 and repeated this in the Under-10 tournament two years later. In 2016, he became the youngest person ever to achieve the International Master norm, at the age of 10 years, 10 months and 19 days. In the Chess World Cup of 2023, he became the youngest player to reach the final, where he lost to Carlsen of Norway. Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali are the only pair of siblings to win Grand Master norm besides being the sole brother- sister duo to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.

On the women’s side, the Indian torch was held aloft by Divya,  Vaishali and Vantika. Divya scored a vital win against China. Vantika and Vaishali came good in a tough match against Kazakhstan in round five, while Divya teamed up with the duo in the encounters against Armenia and Georgia. Divya, Vantika and Vaishali are all under 25 years and hence look all set to serve the cause of India in the coming years.

There is no doubt that Indian chess has come of age with the advent of this crop of youngsters who have all attained high FIDE ranking at a very early age. At this juncture one should also recall the exemplary achievements of Viswanathan Anand that went a long way to popularise this game in the country. It was the success achieved by Anand in the international arena that made it possible for Indian players to dream big and feel confident about taking part in major tournaments and taking on higher-ranked opponents.

Another aspect to be highlighted here is the encouragement given for this sport at the school level in Chennai. In this regard special reference should be made about the efforts put in Velammal Vidyalaya situated at Mogappair in Chennai which is the alma mater for Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali. The fact that 15 out of the 73 Grandmasters produced by India have studied in this school indicates the support and encouragement that this centre of learning has provided to young chess players. This school even takes young chess prodigies on tours to other countries to expose them not only to the styles adopted by the players there and their training methods but also the culture and traditions of the people living there. The exceptional  contributions made by this institution makes it apt to be named as the “cradle of Indian chess”.

One should also compliment the All India Chess Federation for developing the infrastructure to identify outstanding talent at an early age. Their success can be gauged from the fact that no other country has so many up and coming young players in their ranks. We have indeed come a long way from the days when Grandmasters were a rarity in the country.

However, it also merits mention to point out that despite the tall strides made in this sport, much more needs to be done to build upon this good start. The support from corporate sector, presently restricted to sponsoring some prominent players, must reach the young players at the beginning of their careers as well. There is also a requirement for having more championships within the country that attracts the best players in the world. India has witnessed the revolution that took place in cricket since the advent of the Indian Premier League. Similar efforts in chess will pay much bigger dividends given the talent pool available in the country and the interest that this sport has generated in the recent years. 

The success that India has attained in cricket is due to the popularity of the sport, infrastructure established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the support for the game from school-level onwards, identification of talent at an early age and exposure of players to the best training facilities. The flow of funds from the corporates helped identify the hidden potential in all sectors involved with cricket and elevated India to the level of a global powerhouse in this sport. One hopes that the success attained in this Olympiad will motivate not only more youngsters and children to take up chess but also inspire companies to invest into this sport and take India to the top spot.

Congratulations to the champion chess players who brought glory to the country. Wish them many more successes in the coming months and years.

(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a retired bureaucrat)