Chess Editorial

Seeds that Anand sowed finally bear fruit – Indian chess’s time to dominate

September 23, 2024
Boria Majumdar
Indian Chess
Indian Chess (PC: X)

The final match had just ended, and that was when Dibyendu Barua, a dear friend and head of the Indian delegation in Budapest, messaged. “Do you want to speak to the women who just created history?” he asked. I had put in a request much earlier, hoping that history would be created, and that both the open and women’s teams would win gold in Budapest.

At times, miracles happen and this was one such. “This is the start of India’s dominance in world chess,” said Dibyendu. It was exactly what Viswanathan Anand, the architect of this revolution, had said to RevSportz a few minutes earlier. “This is one of the most comprehensive performances in the history of the Chess Olympiad,” said Anand. “The dominance of the men is something that I have been amazed by. And I am hugely delighted by the resilience shown by the women.”

Just as I finished speaking to Anand, Dibyendu called to say the women’s team were all there.

“It has not sunk in yet,” said Divya Deshmukh before adding, “It is the highest point in my career so far, but I want to go much further.” When I asked if she felt pressure while playing a number of crunch matches, she was all humility, “I think I was lucky in half of them,” she said. “Yes, I did play well but I also had the luck.”

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Harika Dronavalli, who started the final round with a win, was relieved more than anything else. “We have been waiting for this day for 20 years and finally it is here,” she said. “It feels fantastic. We are now on top of the world.”

Vantika Agarwal, the other stellar performer for the team, was candid. “I felt a lot of pressure in the last few games, but I am glad I was able to play well and we have now won. It was very difficult but we never lost self-belief.”

As the men and women celebrate and make their way back to India, the enormity of the achievement needs to be recognised. It is simply humungous that India have won the gold in both the open and the women’s section. After the Soviet Union era, this is the first time a nation looks set to dominate world chess. “For the longest time, it was Anand,” Dibyendu told me. “And he still has a major role to play in inspiring these players.

“But to think that India did it without Anand playing is an example of how good the next generation is. Magnus Carlsen had said it three years earlier. He had mentioned that India will dominate world chess. Now it is proving to be true.”


Just to put things into perspective, since the scoring system changed in 2008, no team had won the open competition by more than two points. India finished four ahead of a strong USA team – the kind of dominance associated with the very greatest Soviet teams from the 1950s to the 1980s. That India lost just one match all tournament in a field of this quality – R Praggnanandhaa to the USA’s Wesley So – was scarcely believable.

As we move to a very different format next week with the Global Chess League in London, and D Gukesh starts to prepare for his all-important World Championship final in Singapore, suffice to say that the era of Indian chess is finally here. And the catalyst, Anand, a lone ranger who never gave up and inspired a generation, can finally breathe easy and see the fruits of his efforts take shape. “I am very pleased and proud,” he said. He ought to be.

Also Read: Life after Anand for Indian chess following Olympiad double gold