The image of a smiling D Gukesh standing with outstretched hands will forever be embossed in the memory of a nation of billions.
The moment, which came right after his victory over Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship in Singapore, was a bold signature on India’s rise as a true global chess super power in the post Viswanathan Anand era.
Year 2024 was a story of resurgence in Indian chess, crafted by Anand himself.
The fearless and ambitious teenagers or “Vishy’s children” as Garry Kasparov calls them, now have a role model to emulate — an 18-year-old from Chennai, the youngest ever world champion in the long history of chess.
But the genesis of that success was during the FIDE Candidates tournament in April.
He emerged as the youngest ever winner of that tournament, setting up a title clash with 32-year-old defending champion Liren.
The Gukesh moment
Gukesh was viewed as the favourite going into the title matches, consisting of 14 rounds. That tag itself might have been a pressure point. But with wins in Games 3, 11 and 14, the Indian managed to seal an epochal feat.
Gukesh showed immense presence of mind to carry an entire nation’s hope on his tender shoulders.
But a crumb of credit should also go to a highly-efficient and varied support staff that included the Anand, the pioneer of chess revolution in India, and renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton.
Chess Olympiad triumph
Before Gukesh, India showed its envious inventory of chess champions to the world in all its splendour at Budapest in September. The country walked away with six gold medals in team and individual categories.
In the men’s team category final, India defeated Slovenia while their women counterparts subdued Azerbaijan to join China and erstwhile USSR as the only three nations to bag the men’s and women’s gold medals in the same edition of the event.
In the individual section, Gukesh (Board 1), Arjun Erigaisi (Board 3), Divya Deshmukh (Board 3) and Vantika Agarwal (Board 4) walked away with gold medals.
Siblings impress
The Rameshbabu household in Chennai have two Grandmasters — R Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali, who had crossed the 2500 ELO ratings last year. This year, they became the first siblings to play the Candidates, adding another feather to an already burgeoning cap.
They are also the first siblings to achieve the GM norm.
Pragg fells Carlsen
How about having arguably the world’s best player in knots? Magnus Carlsen is not an unfamiliar rival to Praggnanandhaa, whom he had beaten earlier in Rapid and Blitz formats.
But beating the world No. 1 in the Classical version is a different challenge altogether. Praggnanandhaa achieved this feat during the Norway Chess, Carlsen’s home tournament, in May.
Milestone for Erigaisi, Divya
This is more technical but significant, nonetheless. Erigaisi became the second Indian, after Anand, of course, to cross the 2800 Elo rating points.
The Indian beat Russia’s Dmitry Andreikin in the fifth round of the European Chess Club Cup 2024 to achieve this rare feat. He was also the 15th GM in the history of chess to go past this mark.
Currently, Erigaisi is world No.4 with 2801 points behind Carlsen (2831), Fabiano Caruana (2805) and Hikaru Nakamura (2802).
Divya managed to cross the 2500 Elo rating barrier this year to join an elite club of GMs.
Deep talent pool
Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna are the frontline men’s players, while D Harika, Vaishali, Divya, Vantika and Tanya Sachdev form a formidable women’s line-up.
But the real strength of Indian chess is elsewhere.
“These are famous names because they have achieved several honours. But what makes India a strong chess nation is the fact that thousands of kids are now taking to chess. They have seen Gukesh or Praggnanandhaa climbing heights, and now they think: ‘why can’t we do this?’,” says DP Anantha, Vice-President of All India Chess Federation.
“That increasing talent pool is our real strength. I don’t think any other nation can match us now in that aspect. We will see many young names coming forward next year,” he added.
Perhaps, it’s apt to borrow a catch line from the 80s to describe India’s chess present chess landscape — ‘Neighbours Envy, Owner’s Pride.’
Big 2025 loading
India are currently ranked fourth in the FIDE team rankings. The nation has 64 Grand Masters, logging an average Elo rating of 2668 and a good number of them are less than 25.
Many of them will be seen in action in tournaments such as Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, FIDE Women’s GP, FIDE Women’s World Cup in Georgia and Asian Championships in the UAE etc.
