India Shining. In chess

India is hitting headlines for making chess history, and the heroes are almost too young to be champions. What’s behind the country’s recent prodigal run?

The constant jostling and shuffling for top place in Elo Ratings, a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games like chess, has not only delighted Indian fans but garnered the attention of the chess world since it signifies the emergence of a new super power in the game.
 
In just the first four months of 2024, five Indians—Viswanathan Anand, Dommaraju Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi—have featured in the top ten in World Rankings. What is equally fascinating is that in this period, the pole position of India’s top-ranked chess player in live ratings has also rotated between this lot. Every victory, defeat and even the draws have added to the drama. This is a far cry from the 1990s when Anand stood solo, for decades.

India, ranked second in the world with an average Elo rating of 2713 (top 10 players) is steadily narrowing the gap against top-ranked United States of America which enjoys an Elo 2724 aggregate. China follows third with Elo 2685, and Russia, once the powerhouse of chess, is in fourth position with an Elo 2683 average. Azerbaijan is a distant fifth with Elo 2646.

Last week, 17-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh scripted history to become the youngest ever to win the Candidates tournament, clipping former world champion Garry Kasparov’s long standing 40-year-old record by three years

India’s rating rise has come with spectacular achievements, the icing on the cake being 17-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh scripting history to become the youngest ever to win the Candidates tournament, clipping former world champion Garry Kasparov’s long standing 40-year-old record by three years. Last year, Chennai-born Gukesh had set a new record as the youngest ever to cross the Elo 2750 mark, eclipsing Magnus Carlsen’s record by a few days. Remarkably, three Indians comprised 38 per cent presence among the elite eight at the Candidates 2024.

Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, followed up on an astonishing run to reach and record as the youngest ever finalist to make it to the finals of the World Cup last year. In the Prague Master this January, he occupied pole position in Indian live ratings. Nasik boy Vidit Gujrathi, 29, upset all odds and calculations to win the FIDE Grand Swiss, and had staked a claim in the Candidates too. He grabbed sole top spot in the live rankings in the Tata Steel Chess Wijkaan Zee earlier this year.

Arjun Kumar Erigaisi, a grandmaster and India’s highest ranked player as of April 2024, is another prodigy who has made phenomenal progress, albeit patiently and quietly by winning top notch Open tournaments. Incidentally, Erigasi may not have hit the limelight dramatically as his illustrious contemporaries, but ironically, he is the highest rated Indian in the official April Rating list. Anand, 54, on the other hand, after a career rating high of Elo 2817, has cut down his participation drastically in tournaments.

The mushrooming of chess coaching centres and academies is being seen as a big factor in helping shape India’s modern chess destiny. RB Ramesh, recipient of the Dronacharya award, runs a chess gurukul in Chennai He has been churning out grandmasters and international masters with more regularity in the last six years than India did in the 20 years since Anand became the first GM. Gukesh’s trainer GM Vishnu Prasanna, who runs a chess club in Chennai’s Anna Nagar with his wife, is himself India’s 33rd grandmaster. 

The conduct of the first ever Chess Olympiad at Chennai, in 2022, one of the best ever resulted in chess interest in India going on an overdrive. Attracting corporate sponsorship came as a consequence, with far reaching effect and numerous smaller, local chess events began to mushroom in Tier 2 towns, resulting in a big chess boom.

The pandemic which crippled the world for close to three years, conversely, is responsible for the rise of Indian chess. These prodigies who did not have access to top players of the world in live tournaments were suddenly presented with the opportunity to battle with the big-wigs in online tournaments. By this time, the easy and cheap access to internet data that had penetrated large parts of the country had resulted in Indian chess enthusiasts adding to their knowledge of the game. 

From the global perspective, the geography of chess has also expanded to countries beyond a handful. India and China have in recent years, aggressively staked their claim to global fame, a far cry from the 30 years ago, when the erstwhile USSR dominated the game.

Former Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar, who hit the record books as the highest rated woman player in the world at the age of 15 has been following the young Indian prodigies keenly and attributes this rise in strength to a range of factors apart from the exceptional playing skill displayed by them. Polgar runs programmes across American universities to promote chess and spot talent for the game. “The rising popularity of chess in India has contributed to attracting more youngsters to the game, which in turn results in a higher probability of discovering and honing new talent. This has been possible because of the political patronage both, by the central and state governments, in India. Quality coaches like RB Ramesh and Vishnu Prasanna among others have made a critical contribution in raising the chess strength. Corporate financial support in the form of sponsorship or jobs means that the game has become lucrative and attractive. The influence that Anand has historically exerted on the game in India and its evolution is a bonus.”

Hikaru Nakamura, the third highest rated player in the world, who finished second behind Gukesh at the Candidates, says, “What is happening in India is unique. It’s Vishy Anand’s legacy as far as inspiration goes, but the symbolic importance of India hosting the Chess Olympiad cannot be ignored. The unprecedented monetary assistance that players are now receiving has made a big impact.”

For the prodigies, another big race has just begun: to enter the more elite Elo 2800 club.

Top 5 countries according to elo ratings

USA
2724 
(with 104 Grandmasters)

India
2713
(with 83 Grandmasters)

China
2685  
(51 Grandmasters)

Russia
2683
(183 Grandmasters)

Azerbaijan
2646
(30 Grandmasters)

Mere paas ma hai!

Chess player Vishwanathan Anand with his parents Viswanathan Iyer and Susheela and wife Aruna at his home in Chennai. Pic/Getty Images

Behind most successful chess prodigies are their mothers, guiding gently and protecting fiercely. We saw this when a young Viswanathan Anand began to experiment on the international chess circuit. His mother, the late Sushila Vishwanathan was instrumental in teaching him the rudiments of the game and accompanied him to every tournament in his initial journey. When his father was posted in the Philippines, Anand attended school there. Sushila would record a chess puzzle programme that aired on television so that Anand could solve the puzzles when he returned from school. She also went through most of his games live on the Internet after Anand began travelling for tournaments.

In recent times, Nagalakshmi, mother to brother-sister players Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali has been seen as constant companion. She insists that the rasam and vegetable sambar-rice that cooks in a portable cooker which she carries along on tour plays a big part in offering her children the comfort they need to excel in alien environments. Nagalakshmi is also instrumental in supervising their daily routines and managing chores so that Vaishali and Pragg can keep their focus on chess. Incidentally, one of the strongest world champions that the game has seen, Garry Kasparov, had hailed Nagalakshmi’s contribution in her children’s success, tweeting “Congrats to @rpragchess —and to his mother. As someone whose proud mama accompanied me to every event, it’s a special kind of support!”

Gukesh’s mother D Padma Kumari may travel with him but after watching Anand’s success, it was she who decided that chess should be her son’s calling when he was just seven. However, after Gukesh began to taste early success, she had to make a tough decision. She realised that her husband Dr Rajnikant, an ENT surgeon, would be the one to give up his job to travel with Gukesh, while Padma, a microbiologist would continue to pursue her career and assist the family’s finances. “Since I had a government job as assistant professor, the decision was a simple one to make. Gukesh has modest tastes and is happy with lemon-rice, tamarind rice and curd rice meals. He has also learnt to adjust around alien foods abroad although his father tries his best to organise Indian food wherever they are,” she says. Before and after every game, Gukesh is said to call his mother for a couple of minutes. Interestingly, Dr Rajnikant has said that his wife and son were convinced that he would return to India with the Candidates title and would often talk about it.

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