Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
“You will see at least one Indian in each of the top tournaments,” said Viswanathan Anand at the RevSportz Conclave in March this year. The five-time world champion was commenting on the surge of the youngsters on the world stage after D Gukesh became the youngest-ever world champion, of the impending revolution they were going to cause.
What Anand might not have comprehended then and nobody did is the fact that there would be four Indians in the top 10 of the world rankings and they would excel in top events. Going by the ‘live ratings’ of FIDE the world body, Aravindh Chithambaram will join Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa in that elite band. No other country has as many in this decade and this kind of singular domination has not happened since the decades won and owned by the erstwhile USSR.
Is it massive? That’s an understatement. Where were they until two years ago? A promising source of talent, an army of disciplined and immaculately behaved boys and girls who showed a lot of talent but did not crush the opponent when it came to the crunch. Now, they have cracked that. Gukesh and Erigaisi are happening names among the elites of the game. Praggnanandhaa has won two of the big events of the year. Aravindh has won two too and there is Nihal Sarin moving up unnoticed. Add Anand, Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna and you have eight Indians in the top 35. That’s crazy.
“The point to note is that they are going to be there for a few years,” said Vishnu Prasanna, who has been the coach of Gukesh in the past and now works with Sarin among others. “These are not hit-and-run instances. They are there on merit and have earned their place. This lot will be there on the top for a time to come. And now, they know that they belong there. Indian chess has never had it this good,” added the Grandmaster based out of Chennai.
The reason is deep-rooted and it’s not only about Anand and the mindset he has changed. Of course, his influence on this generation in their teens and just out of that age bracket is immense. He invites them to his house and shares notes. A legend doing that is one of such rare cases across sports. The direct effect he has caused is difficult to calculate or estimate.
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At the same time, the influx of former players as coaches has played a huge part. Vishnu worked with Gukesh for a while and is now with Sarin. RB Ramesh mentors Praggnanandhaa, his sister R Vaishali and Aravindh. Srinath Narayanan worked with Erigaisi. Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda, Abhijit Kunte are all involved with coaching, some way or the other. They are eminent Grandmasters. Their presence in the system and the impact they cause is valuable.
“This bunch has the potential to not just win, but bulldoze the opponent,” Chanda had told RevSportz during last year’s Chess Olympiad. “No other country has this kind of strength when it comes to their top players. Even India’s reserve bench is stronger than others.” Performance validates that assessment. If they stay grounded, unprecedented times are not far away.