Indian chess – Bridging the gap and how!

In recent times, rarely has so much happened in one calendar year for India. With chess icon Viswanathan Anand passing the torch to the younger generation, 2023 brought an abundance of positive news. It stood out in how the global chess community perceives India. The exceptional performances of energetic and determined young players have elevated India’s reputation to unprecedented levels.

Who could have imagined five Indians in the top-level Candidates tournaments, determining contenders for the next World title in both sections? It’s noteworthy that this includes the first sister-brother duo participating in their respective Candidates events, held at the same venue.

Four Indians were in the quarterfinals — and no Russian — in the World Cup, and one of them challenged the eventual champion Magnus Carlsen in the final. Some truly sensational individual performances in what turned out to be the most followed chess event on Indian news channels. In short, the country woke up to chess. R. Praggnanandhaa became a household name — the first after Anand — and continues to be the new flag-bearer for the followers of the sport in India.

In terms of the rise on the world ranking list, another teenager, D. Gukesh, made the chess world sit up and take note. He briefly displaced Anand as the highest-rated Indian in any published world ranking list in 37 years after gate-crashing into the elite top 10.

Not just that. Gukesh went on to beat Anand twice in his debut on the Grand Chess Tour: in the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz in Croatia. The year 2023 also saw Gukesh win the World Chess Armageddon Asia and Oceania title by beating former World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) in the final.

The Grand Swiss event is considered the strongest Open event in the sport. To expect an Indian to win the Open section was not unreasonable. But the way Vidit Gujrathi and R. Vaishali made it an Indian sweep and booked their places for the Candidates was simply sensational.

By the time the year ended, Gukesh and K. Humpy had joined the trio by taking different routes. With the women’s World No. 1 Hou Yifan not interested in playing the Candidates, Humpy made it based on being the next highest-rated non-qualifier on the world list. Gukesh, second to an already-qualified Fabiano Caruana on the FIDE Circuit points table, occupied the eighth and last spot.

As a result, when the Candidate tournaments are held in Toronto, Canada, in April, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit, and Gukesh will represent India in the Open section and Vaishali and Humpy in the women’s section. This kind of presence in the Candidates has brought India more respect and recognition than what one witnessed after India claimed medals in both sections of the 2022 Chess Olympiad.

The presence of 11 Indians in the top 100 of the world ranking list was also unprecedented. Though by the end of 2023, Gukesh and Anand were elbowed out of the top-10 list, it was gratifying to see that every 11th player on the elite list was an Indian.

Anand (11), Praggnanandhaa (13), Vidit (14), Arjun Erigaisi (17), Gukesh (25), P. Harikrishna (33), S. L. Narayanan (42), Nihal Sarin (43), Aravindh Chithambaram (72), Raunak Sadhwani (83), and Abhimanyu Puranik (96) stood in this order.

From this mix, Arjun and Narayanan came up with a series of impressive results without getting their due. Arjun was consistently upstaging higher-rated names from the world elite without winning the title. Narayanan grabbed the bronze in the super-strong Qatar Masters.

In fact, M. Karthikeyan stunned Carlsen in the Qatar Masters and became the only Indian after Anand to do so in a classical time format.

This made Hikaru Nakamura, Carlsen’s long-time rival, tweet, “This is the future for him (Carlsen). The Indians are coming for him. It’s going to be one Indian after another, after another, after another—all the disciples of Vishy.”

In the blitz format, birthday boy Gukesh defeated Carlsen in Norway chess.

Among the women, Vaishali was the one that grabbed the most attention as the year drew to a close. After decades ruled by Humpy, followed by Harika, the rise of Vaishali to the elite top-15 gladdened the hearts of Indian chess followers. At present, Humpy (2nd), Harika (12th), and Vaishali (14th) stand in this order in the world ranking list.

Vaishali’s status and stature were elevated after she won the Grand Swiss and qualified for Candidates. She went on to become only the third Indian woman to become a Grandmaster. After collecting her three mandatory GM norms from the 2019 Xtracon Open, the 2022 Fischer Memorial, and the 2023 Qatar Masters, she took her rating past the stipulated 2500 marks in the 2023 El Llobregat Open in December.

The last month of the year also saw Vaishali winning the prestigious Arjuna Award and her coach, noted trainer R. B. Ramesh, getting the Dronacharya Award. These awards were presented in January of 2024.

The year’s last week brought India a silver medal in the World Rapid tournament, with former champion Humpy making a brilliant comeback and coming up with a strong finish.

With the addition of six more Grandmasters — M. Pranesh, N. R. Vignesh, Sayantan Das, V. Praneeth, Aditya Samant, and Vaishali — India’s tally rose to 84.

Elsewhere, five-year-old Tejas Tiwari became the youngest-rated player in the world with a tally of 1149. This was just the kind of news that underlined India’s claim to be the next superpower in the sport.

The cash-rich Global Chess League made its debut in Dubai, where some of the leading names, headed by Carlsen, showed up. Much like what the Indian Premier League (IPL) did for lesser-known Indian players, this league should bring a lot of confidence to those who get to be on the same team as some elite players.

Overall, there were plenty of gains right through the year that buried the disappointment of India returning with just two Asian Games silver medals from the team events. Looking forward, 2024 holds the promise of some memorable performances in the Candidates and beyond.