Advantage India: Quality ecosystem boosts chess, identifies future talent

The double gold win for India at the Budapest Chess Olympiad with 190-odd participating nations is a big achievement. The Open team dominated throughout, winning all but one match (the draw was against Uzbekistan) to effectively clinch gold with a round to spare. The women fought back after a costly loss against Poland to win their last two matches and take gold. The victories can be attributed to great team spirit, strong preparation, and, above all, to an amazing pipeline of talent, buttressed by experience. The big scorers for the Open team were D Gukesh (18) and Arjun Erigaisi (21), both of whom won individual gold medals for their performances and catapulted into the World top five rankings. The big scorers for the women were Divya Deshmukh (18) and Vantika Agrawal (22), who won individual gold. Their big scores were buttressed by solid performances from the young grandmaster siblings, R Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa, while Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikirishna, Harika, and Tania Sachdev provided the solidity of experience.

India had won bronze medals in both sections in 2022, when Chennai hosted the biennial event. The two extra years of experience has meant that the younger members of the teams were just that little bit more stable. These young men and women are at the apex of a chess pyramid, which has churned out 85 Grandmasters in recent times, many of whom are also in their teens, or early 20s. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has to be given credit for creating an ecosystem that nurtures talent. The mentoring by legendary world champion Viswanathan Anand has also proved inspirational. Anand’s centre, the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy, has been instrumental not only in providing coaching service to many of these youngsters, but also in arranging sponsorships and grants for promising players.

Corporate sponsorships have also been forthcoming. Many organisations have come through with sponsorships for tournaments, funding for training programmes with foreign grandmasters, a Chess League (which works on a format similar to the Indian Premier League) and other forms of support, including support specifically for women players. Several state governments, along with the central government, also deserve credit for providing financial support for players. The Olympiad wins are a vindication of the way in which chess is organised in India. In fact, there were a half-dozen other young players who could well have represented India at these events, indicating the bench strength that has developed. Credit also goes to the social media explosion for making chess more popular in a nation with a young population and high digital penetration. Chessbase India, the most popular of the Indian streaming platforms, has over 1.9 million subscribers. It has successfully crowd-funded support for many players and hosted many events, including physical tournaments.

At a more mundane level, multiple schools in India offer chess as an extracurricular activity, and there are competent chess coaches available even in Tier-II and -III cities. Success breeds popularity, which, in turn, breeds more success. The ecosystem ensures that future talent will be identified and nurtured, while the Olympiad double should lead to further growth in popularity. Fans will be aware that Gukesh, who held the top-board in Budapest, will play the Chinese world champion Ding Liren in November in an eagerly awaited title match. If Gukesh wins, that would give yet another fillip to Indian chess.