India a chess super power

R Praggnanandhaa during the FIDE World Cup final against Norwegian World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in Baku yesterday. Pic/PTI

From hosting highs to rating rises, Indian chess has had a phenomenal run in the last couple of years, emerging as a strong contender to be a super power in chess. The recent rating statistics released by FIDE (world chess organisation) shows India in third spot with a Top 10 player average of Elo 2698 points, a mere two points behind second-placed Russia. The United States with most migrated players, tops the list with 2,730 while China follows fourth with 2,684. For the first time, there are nine Indians in the top 100 FIDE rating list, a far cry from the times when Viswanathan Anand stood solo.

The FIDE World Cup which concluded at Baku, Azerbaijan, yesterday with 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa seeded 31, losing to legend Magnus Carlsen in the final, comprehensively showcased India's strength, both in terms of quantity and quality, creating and erasing existing records.

Record participation

An amazing 17 players, the highest ever qualified for this prestigious event and a record four players advanced to the quarter-finals, a whopping 50 per cent Indian presence, reminiscent of the times when the erstwhile USSR had a stranglehold on this game.

Praggnanandhaa defied all odds and upset calculations, albeit not unexpectedly to advance to the semi-final where he was pitted against former World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana.

His most memorable result so far has been eliminating World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura.

Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi

Dommaraju Gukesh, 17, was a trifle unlucky to run into the quarters against Magnus Carlsen, the highest rated player in the world for a decade and though his elimination was heart-breaking, his spirited play won many a heart. Gukesh, a month back had set the world record as the youngest ever to cross the Elo 2750 mark, eclipsing Carlsen's feat. Another bittersweet moment in the World Cup was Gukesh overtaking five-time world champion Anand as the highest rated Indian, a position which Anand had firmly anchored for an astounding 36 years. Gukesh also stormed into the Top 10 in the world ranking during the World Cup, becoming only the second Indian after Anand to do so.

Also Read: R Praggnanandhaa: Wonderkid to a chess great in the waiting

Talented teen-trio

This talented teen-trio of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi are quite clearly the future faces of Indian as well as international chess, winning international events with effortless ease and rapidly scaling the rating ladder with classy consistency.

Another teenager Nihal Sarin follows not far behind and incidentally this foursome was part of the India ‘B' team along with B Adhiban who waltzed away with the bronze medal last year at the Chennai Chess Olympiad, pipping India ‘A' team to the fourth spot.

Last year, India had set a world record of 186 countries participating in the Chess Olympiad at Chennai, an event hosted spectacularly with just about five months of preparation. This was the biggest ever platform to showcase Indian chess at an international level and the Indian players rose magnificently to the occasion, bagging a bronze in both the open and women's section. As host nation, the bonus of fielding two extra teams in both sections paid rich dividends with the top two teams figuring in the Top 10 in both sections. Gukesh and Nihal stunned with two individual golds, Arjun Erigaisi a silver while Praggu, Tania, Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh bagged individual bronze, the biggest and richest ever haul at the Olympiads.

One of the biggest factors that has contributed to the growth of Indian chess has been the age category events, especially the Under-7, where they start very young. While the pandemic halted activity in outdoor sports, chess relying heavily on the internet, received a big boost and boomed like never before. Access and exposure to study material and tournaments have been courtesy the rapid rise of online chess platforms like ChessBase, Chess.com. The mushrooming of chess Academies countrywide by Indian Grandmasters has attracted young kids in droves. Strong and young Indian Grandmasters retiring early from competitive chess like RB Ramesh to focus full time on coaching is another factor lending strength to the game.

Anand has also been keenly mentoring the youngsters for the last couple of years with his WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA). "We started with Praggu, Nihal, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, R Vaishali as part of our core group and later Lyon Mendonca joined us. We also included a few other promising players in some of our classes. Everyone has made significant progress, but Praggu and Gukesh have been the superstars. This core group is phenomenally talented and a very competitive one, each one aware that they have to fight for their spot in the Indian team. This group is aware that they have to keep getting better and this group will be on top for a long time. Honestly, I had the Candidates as a goal but not this early," says Anand.

Praggu in all probability will made his debut at the Candidates scheduled next year, only the second Indian after Anand.

More great days to come!

Praggnanandhaa's road to final

. Got a bye in first round.
. Defeated French Grandmaster Maxime Lagarde 1.5-0.5 in second round.
. Beat experienced Czech GM David Navara 1.5-0.5 in third round.
. Beat World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura of USA 3-1 in fourth round.
. Beat Hungarian Ferenc Berkes 1.5-0.5 in fifth round.
. Registered a come-from-behind 5-4 win over compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the sixth round.
. Beat Italian-American GM, Fabiano Caruana, ranked third in the world, 3.5-2.5 in the semi-final to become the youngest to reach the summit clash of the World Cup.