The moment when Indian chess players are ready to take the world by storm

(From left to right) The next gen of chess stars R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi and D Gukesh.

The National Sports Awards usually brings the spotlight on a clutch of top athletes who have excelled in their respective disciplines in the year gone by. The 2023 awards, bestowed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, were a significant eye-opener. For a change, a cricketer did not corner all the glory.

A welcome change is being noticed among media houses. While a Rinku Singh or a Yashasvi Jaiswal deserve all the attention for their pugnacious approach to cricket, several young champions from the world of archery, shooting, badminton and chess are grabbing media attention in equal measure. It is a reflection of India’s growing awareness on all kinds of sports and not just cricket.

Chess, a top global game unlike cricket, has particularly struck a purple patch. Last year, it made the headlines frequently and 2024 could be a special year as well. Firstly, the game has emerged from the towering shadow of one Viswanathan Anand and secondly, Indian chess continues to produce masters of the game at an exponential rate.

If statistics are anything to go by, five players representing India at the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Toronto in April this year is not only historic but a mind boggling number. The winner at the Candidates qualifies to play the World Cup final and can become a world champion. In fact, we can have two world champions – a man and a woman - later this year!  This has never happened for India in any sport.

Anand has truly passed the torch to a generation of energetic and ambitious young players. And it’s just not men like R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh or Vidit Gujrathi. Two – Koneru Hampi and R. Vaishali – of the five at Toronto, will be from the distaff side. World sports are increasingly becoming an equal opportunity platform. It is embedded in the core values of Olympism. Indian chess has already achieved this ratio and how.

Emerging From Anand’s Shadow

All roads led to the Ashoka Hotel in Chanakyapuri on January 8, a day before the National Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. This ITDC hotel was home to some of India’s top sportspersons that day. Mohammed Shami, who was being awarded the Arjun Award for his sterling bowling performance in the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup, preferred to stay elsewhere.

It was perhaps a blessing in disguise because it enabled archery world champions Aditi Gopichand Swamy and Ojas Pravin Deotale, long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and 2023 Asian Games 5000 metres champion Parul Chaudhary to corner some well-deserved media attention.

There was, of course, a very very special family at the Ashoka. During lunch time, very few in the dining hall knew about the identity of a threesome which was garnering quite some attention at a corner table. They looked all very low profile, had ‘tilak’ on their foreheads and sported a confident smile on their faces. A closer peek revealed the mother-daughter duo of R Nagalakshmi and Vaishali and chess Grandmaster and coach RB Ramesh.

If Ramesh and women’s Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy became India’s first Grandmaster couple, Nagalakshmi can proudly say they she has given birth to India’s first pair of sibling Grandmasters – Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa – who will, for the first time, represent the country at the prestigious Candidates.

For decades, the buck in Indian chess stopped with Anand.  He remains a powerful ambassador of the sport with his astute knowledge of the game. What made him stand apart were his dapper looks, genial mannerisms and articulate media relationship.

At a time when Sachin Tendulkar was dominating world cricket, Leander Paes had won a medal at the centennial Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and struck a fine partnership with Mahesh Bhupathi, Abhinav Bindra shot a historic gold at Beijing Olympics in 2008, Anand gave Indian chess its unique identity during an amazing career defined by his sheer power of the mind.

Fine Transition

Transition to the next generation is a process. Indian chess has done that beautifully. Like cricket, kabaddi, badminton and football, chess is also emerging as a strong career option. Chess players may not have the glitter and glamour but they are already the cynosure of all eyes by their sheer performance.

When 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa reached the final of FIDE World Cup in August 2023 and went on a giant-killing spree, his beaming photograph with Nagalakshmi in Baku, Azerbaijan, went viral. The mother’s heart swelled with pride because her son became the first Indian since Anand in 2002, to make it to the final of the World Cup. The legendary Garry Kasparov congratulated the mother-son duo and appreciated Praggnanandhaa for “being very tenacious in difficult positions.”

This glory has attracted corporate attention, too. Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl proposed a documentary on the chess champion. Praggnanandhaa’s life story and the journey of his family is a classic tale of inspiration. Businessman Anand Mahindra, too, celebrated the young champion’s performance in the World Cup.

In today’s world, corporates are taking keen interest in different kinds of sports. They see chess as a good investment because Indians are making the right noise globally with their performance. Praggnanandhaa has already secured a long-term deal with the Adani Group, in addition to a $36,000 boost from the All India Chess Federation in November last year. When sporting success attracts financial backing, a sport is then seen to have arrived. Chess has taken a long time to achieve this status and this is perhaps a soft start to more glorious days ahead.

Soumitra Bose is a senior journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.