With Gukesh Dommaraju becoming the world chess champion,
both men and women teams bagging Gold in the Chess Olympiad, 2024, held in
Budapest and producing 50 grandmasters over the last decade, it can now safely
be concluded that Chess has returned to its cradle. Without stopping here, if
any Indian grandmaster can win the world rapid and blitz championship starting
from December 26 next in the US, India’s hegemony over the present chess world
will be firmly established. It’s indeed an amazing turnaround as for long the
game of 64 squares used to be considered as a waste of time rather than an
exercise to sharpen the brain, which prevented chess from becoming popular in
India.
Legendary chess player and five-time world chess champion
Viswanathan Anand must be credited for breaking this taboo. Anand’s numerous
successes have made the people realise that chess can be also rewarding and
since his ascendency, the Indians have reinvented their love for chess. After
Anand, Koneru Humpy won the women’s world rapid championship, besides being
among the top five women chess players in the world for several years and
occupied the second spot in the rankings for 22 months at a stretch. Even
before Humpy won the world rapid chess title, Harika Dronavalli won three
bronze medals in 2012, 2015 and 2017 at the women’s world championship. From
there onwards, Gukesh, Praggnandhaa, Arjun, Nihal and others, the so-called
golden generation of Indian chess, are continuing to stun the world with their
extraordinary performances on board. While Arjun has already crossed 2800 Elo
ratings, Praggnandhaa has beaten Carlsen several times.
Apart from Anand’s contribution to Indian chess, there are
few other reasons that have made this incredible journey possible. Firstly,
chess has already penetrated in all corners of the country, which is helping
the experts to discover new talents, even from remote areas. Secondly, these
days many tournaments are being held online where the budding Indian chess
talents are getting a chance to compete with reputed international players. It
may be mentioned here that the present number one in the country Arjun Erigaisi
first came to limelight by virtue of performing well in online competitions.
Thirdly, a host of India grandmasters have now switched to coaching and helping
the youngsters to further hone their skills. But there are still areas that
need to be addressed promptly if we wish to continue hegemony in chess.
Although quality coaching facilities are now available in India, it is still
expensive as Gukesh has recently revealed that his family was in debt to
provide money for training. Moreover as chess is a mind game, steps should be
taken to ensure that the players do not have to run from pillar to post to
arrange visas for participating in tournaments like Arjun, who is yet to get a
visa to participate in world rapid and blitz chess. If the chess federation
takes care of the players properly, we may see Indian chess talents dominating
in all formats of the game and may even end up competing against each other for
the most coveted world crown soon.
