How India came to dominate the chessboard

Over the people of a heady fortnight successful Budapest, the axis of the satellite of chess had tilted decisively — towards India.

At this year’s Chess Olympiad successful the Hungarian capital, the Indian chess contingent swept the 3 squad golden medals connected offer — the ‘Hamilton-Russell Cup’ for the unfastened section, the ‘Vera Menchik Cup’ for the women’s conception and the ‘Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy’ for the wide title. To adhd to those 3 squad golds, determination were besides 4 idiosyncratic golds won by Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal.

The Indian squad successful the unfastened conception of the Olympiad — a biennial squad lawsuit wherever implicit 180 nations participated — was truthful ascendant that it finished 4 points up of 5 different teams who ended second, the United States of America, Uzbekistan, China, Serbia and Armenia. At the past Olympiad successful Chennai successful 2022, the Indian chess contingent came adjacent to winning 2 golden medals, but stumbled astatine the last hurdle. But this time, determination was nary stopping the Indians.

“If this occurrence had travel successful the Chennai Olympiad 2 years ago, it would person had the consciousness of a flimsy accident. A pleasant surprise. At the Budapest Olympiad, precise quickly, by the 4th circular itself, I had the feeling, ‘which squad is going to halt them?’ And we cognize the answer. They won by a four-point gap,” five-time satellite champion
Viswanathan Anand said astatine an lawsuit successful Mumbai.

On the unrecorded satellite rankings, which are updated successful real-time, determination are presently 3 Indians successful the apical 10 — Gukesh, Arjun and Anand — with Praggnanandhaa conscionable outside. Three Indian men and 2 women besides qualified for the Candidates tourney successful April. Held successful Toronto this year, the tourney – which accommodates lone 8 players successful each class and is held to find a challenger to the satellite champion — saw 17-year-old Gukesh becoming the youngest subordinate to suffice for the World Championship.

After Gukesh won the Candidates, the legendary Garry Kasparov had remarked: “The Indian earthquake successful Toronto is the culmination of the shifting tectonic plates successful the chess world… The children of Vishy Anand are connected the loose.”

“You tin person a batch of trophies but the Olympiad golden is special. It establishes your dominance arsenic a squad and arsenic a country,” Indian squad skipper Srinath Narayanan told The Indian Express.

With Budapest nether its belt, India had cemented its spot arsenic a bona fide chess superpower.

Grandmasters showed the way

India’s chess communicative has an arc that begins with Viswanathan Anand, the country’s archetypal GM, and leapfrogs to the contiguous procreation of prodigies. But betwixt Anand and the existent procreation is simply a lesser-told story: of an in-between procreation of grandmasters — R B Ramesh, Srinath Narayanan, Vishnu Prasanna, Abhijit Kunte, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chandan, to sanction a fewer — who turned to coaching aboriginal connected successful their careers and sculpted this young clump of Indian world-beaters. They did that by catching them aboriginal and giving them a blueprint to purpose for the top.

Vishnu Prasanna became a GM successful 2013, the aforesaid twelvemonth arsenic Vidit Gujrathi, but conscionable 4 years later, went connected to go 1 of Gukesh’s earliest coaches. Srinath Narayanan became a GM 4 years aft Vishnu and Vidit, but was 1 of the strongest influences successful shaping the careers of Arjun and Nihal Sarin. Among the galore players R B Ramesh has worked connected successful their aboriginal days are Pragg and Vaishali.

“Some of the things I taught these players was what I learnt done proceedings and mistake aft respective years. We were capable to prevention galore years for the adjacent procreation of players… For instance, 1 of the aged dogmas was that you shouldn’t play excessively overmuch blitz (the fastest format of the sport) due to the fact that it’s harmful for your chess. But look astatine Arjun and Nihal. They grew up playing blitz online. In today’s times, it has go 1 of the astir effectual ways of improving chess for immoderate player, not conscionable ace talents. If you play blitz against players stronger than you, you agelong yourself. In the process of stretching yourself, you improve,” Srinath Narayanan, who was successful Budapest arsenic India’s captain, told The Indian Express.

In Gukesh’s case, it was Vishnu who gave him a cardinal proposal that would beryllium to beryllium a gamechanger. Vishnu told him to not usage chess engines till helium crossed a definite standing barrier. It was a counter-intuitive gambit fixed engines person altered the mode players present hole for games. But the program worked and Gukesh astir became the youngest grandmaster successful history.

R B Ramesh jumped full-time into coaching astatine 32, aft being a part-time manager for astir 10 years. “When we were players, we did not cognize if immoderate of the decisions we were taking were bully oregon bad. There was nary 1 to question guidance from. You conscionable had to spot your instincts. For these youngsters, it helps to person idiosyncratic who has gone done these things themselves.”

Of course, for India’s prodigies, the past mile successful the cognition spread was bridged by the nation’s archetypal grandmaster, Anand.

At the tallness of the pandemic, Anand launched the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA), an online level modelled connected the legendary Botvinnik School of Chess successful the erstwhile Soviet Union.

As portion of WACA, Anand handpicked the country’s prodigies — Gukesh, Pragg, Vaishali and Arjun — and helped them get coaching from trainers helium himself had worked with during his playing days. At WACA, Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski taught opening theories, Sandipan Chanda helped them interaction up their mid-game prep, Russian GM Artur Yusupov taught endgames and Boris Gelfand hosted mentoring sessions.

Anand besides ensured the players had the champion idiosyncratic attention. His input was indispensable for Gukesh hiring Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski arsenic his trainer due to the fact that Anand thought the teen needed to sharpen his openings. Anand besides nudged Vaishali to prosecute Sandipan Chanda arsenic her trainer. While Gukesh is present going to contend for the World Championship, Vaishali became India’s 3rd pistillate grandmaster.

India’s Gukesh poses with his idiosyncratic golden medal connected committee 1 successful the unfastened conception astatine the Chess Olympiad successful Budapest. (PHOTO: FIDE/ Michal Walusza)

Big moves, large money

At the Chess Olympiad, backed by the government, India took a large contingent to Budapest with their 10 players supported by a six-member backroom unit of grandmasters. The delegation included captains Srinath Narayanan and Abhijit Kunte and adjunct coaches Vaibhav Suri, Sankalp Gupta, Swayams Mishra and Arjun Kalyan. India’s 2nd grandmaster Dibyendu Barua was besides sent arsenic the caput of the delegation.

The size of the delegation drew admiring looks from different grandmasters astir the world.

“Here astatine the Olympiad, the Indian squad is present with much coaches than players. And past determination are different teams who are by themselves, preparing. They person to wage for their ain flights to get here,” Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport told The Indian Express.

India’s winning tally successful chess has coincided with authorities enactment and fiscal viability of the athletics – cardinal factors down the sport’s rising popularity among youngsters who spot the athletics arsenic a vocation option.

There’s large wealth to beryllium made successful the sport, whether from playing for a league similar the Global Chess League oregon by playing successful idiosyncratic events. Gukesh won €48,000 (approximately Rs 45 lakh) for winning the Candidates this year. Besides the prize wealth astatine these big-ticket events, determination are unfastened tournaments and online events wherever determination is much wealth to beryllium made.

“There was a clip erstwhile incomes depended connected the apical tournaments that we played. But now, the existent harvest of Indian youngsters person monolithic sponsorships. They nary longer attraction astir the wealth they marque from tournaments. So they sometimes play for precise small wealth astatine unfastened tournaments,” says Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri.

Giri is pointing astatine the jaw-dropping sponsorship deals that India’s apical players person signed successful caller years. Pragg is backed by the Adani Group for an unspecified magnitude portion Arjun signed a Rs 12.4 crore ($1.5 million) woody for 5 years successful 2022.

The Indian squad poses connected the podium astatine the Chess Olympiad successful Budapest. (PHOTO: FIDE/ Michal Walusza)

Chess mates, all

While the satellite feverishly watched the Indians bulldoze their mode past opponents successful Budapest, distant from the cameras, the Indian players bonded implicit much than conscionable the game.

Srinath, the squad captain, reveals however Arjun would bid nutrient for Vidit whenever his games stretched connected for precocious due to the fact that the second ate lone vegan fare and the buffet usually had constricted vegan options.

“We utilized to person squad walks together. And highly agelong dinners wherever we would conscionable ace jokes and roast each other. It’s mostly Hari anna (Harikrishna) and Vidit who pulled our legs. We had decided earlier the tourney that we wouldn’t speech astir antagonistic things due to the fact that we didn’t privation that to dispersed successful the team,” says Arjun.

After the squad won gold, each the players gathered successful a edifice country and sat astir a furniture singing, with Vidit connected the
guitar.

These radical sessions are a uncommon privilege that lone the Olympiad offers considering chess players usually unrecorded precise isolated lives portion connected the tour.

“Indian prodigies similar Arjun and Gukesh person risen together. They person conscionable accepted the information that they person to absorption connected their game…They are conscionable truthful palmy connected their ain that I don’t deliberation they vie with each other. They vie with themselves,” says Anish Giri.

The closing ceremonial of the Olympiad successful Budapest offered a model into that camaraderie and communal respect that India’s champion players shared successful a athletics that’s different a mostly individualistic pursuit.

That day, arsenic Praggnanandhaa stood connected the signifier with the winner’s trophy, astir to airs for a photograph, Vidit Gujrathi, 1 of the elder statesmen of the side, slipped successful from behind, draped a tricolour implicit the young Pragg’s shoulders and slipped retired of the frame.

And then, determination was Gukesh. For astir of the year, helium has worn his crippled face, but aft the Olympiad win, coaxed by seniors Tania Sachdev and Vidit, helium danced and did the Rohit Sharma-Messi slow-mo locomotion to the podium. After Anand handed the squad the winners’ trophy, Gukesh, Arjun and Vidit engaged successful a conspiratorial susurration earlier handing the trophy to Anand and nudging the India fable to clasp it aloft.

That was the time chess borrowed a spot of cricket’s flamboyance – aft the 2011 World Cup, the Indian cricket squad had hoisted Sachin Tendulkar connected their shoulders arsenic they did a triumph thigh astatine the Wankhede Stadium. Anand aboriginal said, “That infinitesimal felt nice.”

Meet India’s idiosyncratic golden winners astatine the Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad saw immoderate awesome solo performances from the Indian contingent with 4 players — Gukesh (board 1 successful unfastened section), Arjun Erigaisi (board 3 successful unfastened section), Divya Deshmukh (board 3 successful women’s section) and Vantika Agrawal (board 4 successful women’s section) — winning idiosyncratic golds arsenic well.

Gukesh: With 8 wins successful 10 games, helium is present World No. 5 successful real-time unrecorded rankings. His ratings roseate by 30 points to 2,794 successful conscionable 10 games.

Arjun Erigaisi: Started the Olympiad with a standing of 2,778, but is present 3 points distant from breaking into the exclusive 2,800 club. He added 19 points to his tally astatine Budapest and is present World No. 3 successful the unrecorded rankings.

Divya Deshmukh: Was 1 of India’s stars successful the women’s conception astatine the Olympiad. She added 17 points to her tally and is present the World No. 11.

Vantika Agrawal: The astonishment bundle for India astatine the Olympiad, she played 9 games, winning six and drafting three. Her large wins were against Georgian grandmaster Bella Khotenashvili and American GM Irina Krush, some coming with achromatic pieces.