We’ve been featuring pieces about the rise and rise of Indian chess on the global scene. With Gukesh winning the candidates round earlier this year and set to face Ding Liren for the championship later this year, we thought things couldn’t get better. But last Sunday’s double triumph at the world chess Olympiad with the Indian teams winning both the open event as well as the women’s event showed the dominant position India has gotten to in chess. Susan Ninan who has been covering this journey of Indian chess quite eloquently, writes about this historic moment, which will likely pave the way for a generation of dominance by India of a global sport, something we last saw with Indian hockey in the middle of the last century.
“Superlatives can often be overused in sport. Pedestrian results may be labelled “great” and every superstar athlete is adorned with the “GOAT” title. Yet, every so often, a performance comes along that has shredded the competition and deserves all the hype and hyperbole it can gather. India’s run at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest — historic, course-altering double gold medals — by the Open and women’s teams is just that.”
Referring to the win in the open category, Ninan writes “…It’s not the medal alone, but the manner in which it was won — stomping and flattening all in their path. India lost just one game out of 44 over 11 rounds in a show of complete domination.
…It’s not a flash in the pan, or an inexplicable mad show. This performance has been motored by talents who have been nurtured over the past decade. We’re looking at a group of young, hungry players with work ethic, consistency and ambition. They’re not just happy to be doing alright as strong GMs, they’re here to win the biggest titles that matter — World Championships, Olympiads.
…This show of complete domination is testimony to India’s depth and strength. The country may well be producing an assembly-line of GMs but that’s only seen as a starting point at best. Two players in the top five, five in the top 25 of the live ratings and now Olympiad champions is a statement. Of being world beaters. India’s era of domination in chess is no longer in the future. It’s here.”
Susan reminds us of the man behind this:
“A lot of this accelerated growth in this bunch of 18-21-year-olds came about after five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand decided to take up the role of mentor around the time of the Covid pandemic. He unselfishly passed on learnings, pitfalls, resources and even his former seconds to the group.”
The legendary Gary Kasparov’s tweet from earlier this year “The children of Vishy Anand are on the loose” couldn’t have aged better.
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