In world chess, 2024 will be remembered as India’s year. Making it more specific, it was the year of the youngsters from the country. The game was anticipating an Indian upsurge anytime. This bunch of boys and girls were making their presence felt in major events. D Gukesh’s triumph at the World Championship announced emphatically that they have arrived big time.
This was coming. The first signs were seen at the Chennai Chess Olympiad in 2022. The Indian men’s team won bronze — for the second time after 2014 — while the women clinched a first bronze. Then, four Indians reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Azerbaijan last year. R Praggnanandhaa went on to finish runner-up, losing to World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen.
The world had taken note of this. A lot of people were predicting a bright future for these kids. But nobody thought that it would happen so fast,within a calendar year,and the numbers would be so high. This was like alchemy, as whatever they touched turned into gold.Not many countries in history have experienced this volume of success in a year.
Gukesh set the ball rolling by winning the eight-player Candidates meet, where three Indians took part. Pragg beat Carlsen in the classical format in an event in Norway, Divya Deshmukh won the girls’ title in the under-19 World Championship, R Vaishali became the third Indian woman to become a Grandmaster, the Indian teams won both gold medals at the Chess Olympiad, Nihal Sarin was adjudged player of the tournament at the Global Chess League, Arjun Erigaisi became the 15th player in history to cross 2800 in Elo ratings, before Gukesh provided the perfect finishing touch.
“Today, it’s completely different with Indian chess,” Zurab Azmaiparashvili, veteran Georgian Grandmaster and president of the European Chess Union, told RevSportz in Singapore after the World Championship fight between Gukesh and Ding Liren. “It’s a new generation and you are not only leading the world, but also guiding the world how to play in the future. I won’t be surprised to see two Indian in the next World Championship match.”
For the Latest Sports News: Click Here
The 64-year-old knows Indian chess. He was the coach of the Indian team for a while in the first decade of the century and worked with the likes of K Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, the latter a part of Gukesh’s support team for the World Championship.“I’m impressed with Gukesh and all the players who were part of the Olympiad teams,”noted Azmaiparashvili. “For this, I thank the All India Chess Federation. In the last 10 years, they have done a great job to build this generation that we see now.”
The best part of this story is it doesn’t begin and end with Gukesh. There is Viswanathan Anand as a mentor and guiding force. Other than being involved with the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy — where Gukesh, Pragg, Arjun, Vaishali and others train — he also helped the new world champion prepare for the big match. Other than those mentioned before, Vidit Gujrathi has cemented his place among the elite, Raunak Sadhwani is coming up fast, and Vantika Agarwal is also on the way up.
The AICF is trying to capitalise on this momentum. It wants to host big tournaments next year and according to Nitin Narang, the AICF president, plans are afoot for two. The absence of big events in the country means players have to travel abroad in order to gain norms and rating points. This has been a long-standing complaint from the players. The Chennai GM tournament held twice so far is the only one they have at the moment. This is not organised by the AICF.
“Making sure that the players in age-groups from under-7 to under-19 (top three in each category, boys and girls)get a monthly stipend is priority,” Narang told RevSportz in Singapore. The federation is looking at an amount of Rs 20,000-25,000 per month. “We also want to offer more in prize money at the state level. The units will receive Rs 12.5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh (in a phased manner) per year. Of that, Rs 8 lakh should be spent on prize money. It won’t be a driver, but an incentive.”
There is lots to look back on and forwardto in Indian chess, taking 2024 as the point in the middle. Earlier, this was about the periods before and after Anand. Now, a new chapter has started. Even the five-time world champion may not have thought that good results would be in such quantity. “I’ll be happy if proven wrong, but it’s difficult to top this year,” Anand summed it up succinctly.
Also Read: Outside noise over Gukesh’s triumph an expression of frustration