CHENNAI: India not only hosted what is arguably one of the best editions of Chess Olympiad — which culminated on Sunday — but made their strongest performance so far in the competition by winning two bronze medals. The high point of the tournament from India’s point of view was the young gun D GukeshGreat show.
five-time world champion Viswanathan AnandThe team’s mentor praised Gukesh’s run in the Olympiad. The Indian legend revealed how he found it difficult to keep pace with the youngster’s progress over the past few months.
“It was just a breathless performance (by him) and we couldn’t keep it going. (His rise) has been quite dramatic as I am now evaluating a different chess player than I did in May this year. He entered the top-100 in April and has now reached the top-20. Probably I will need to sit and re-evaluate,” Anand said during an event to announce the fourth edition on Wednesday Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament — which will be held in Kolkata from 29th November to 4th December. Apart from the open category, this year’s tournament will also feature a women’s competition with the same format — rapid and blitz.
For Anand, the biggest achievement from the Olympiad was the performance by the youth. “Gukesh has been the biggest success story of the tournament but others in the team like R Pragyanananda:, Nihal SareenRaunak Sadhwani and B overhang Did a great job too. Everyone played their part. Nihal and Adhiban were consistent, while Praggu and Raunak delivered in moments of crisis. Also, for India 1 — Arjun Arigasi was in terrific form, got better as the tournament progressed and broke the 2700 ELO barrier in the live ratings which is a tremendous achievement,” the 52-year-old said.
On the 16-year-old’s heart-wrenching defeat in the final round of the competition, Anand said: “Gukesh was not only winning, but his position was crushing as well. Many of us thought that his rival (Nodirbek Abdusatorov Uzbekistan) may have resigned in the next few steps. However, Gukesh did not get success. Gukesh could not stop playing for the win, even when the team had already won.
After the tournament, Gukesh revealed how Anand’s vigorous conversation after his loss to Nodirbek had excited him. He said, ‘He said these things have happened many times in his career. Anand was showing an example of a time when he lost from a win situation. I felt good after that that even such a great player has gone through the same things that I am going through,” Gukesh had said.
Anand felt that the medal winning show of the Indian women’s team should inspire more women players to take up the sport in future. “In the women’s section, India’s performance was a dramatic improvement. In general, I think we need to build on this momentum and that will happen when we organize more tournaments for women and juniors that will motivate players to play chess at a young age. Events like Tata Steel Chess for Women this year are a step in the right direction.”
While India put up some scintillating performances, fans remembered Khiladi Anand. It looked like if Legend had been playing himself, India could have done better than what they did in the event. The newly elected FIDE vice-president said he would pick and choose tournaments as it has done in the past few years.
“I am yet to decide which will be the next event. Like this year, I expect to play some tournaments in the months of May, June and July, but nothing is planned yet. I love playing chess and will continue to play some tournaments.”
five-time world champion Viswanathan AnandThe team’s mentor praised Gukesh’s run in the Olympiad. The Indian legend revealed how he found it difficult to keep pace with the youngster’s progress over the past few months.
“It was just a breathless performance (by him) and we couldn’t keep it going. (His rise) has been quite dramatic as I am now evaluating a different chess player than I did in May this year. He entered the top-100 in April and has now reached the top-20. Probably I will need to sit and re-evaluate,” Anand said during an event to announce the fourth edition on Wednesday Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament — which will be held in Kolkata from 29th November to 4th December. Apart from the open category, this year’s tournament will also feature a women’s competition with the same format — rapid and blitz.
For Anand, the biggest achievement from the Olympiad was the performance by the youth. “Gukesh has been the biggest success story of the tournament but others in the team like R Pragyanananda:, Nihal SareenRaunak Sadhwani and B overhang Did a great job too. Everyone played their part. Nihal and Adhiban were consistent, while Praggu and Raunak delivered in moments of crisis. Also, for India 1 — Arjun Arigasi was in terrific form, got better as the tournament progressed and broke the 2700 ELO barrier in the live ratings which is a tremendous achievement,” the 52-year-old said.
On the 16-year-old’s heart-wrenching defeat in the final round of the competition, Anand said: “Gukesh was not only winning, but his position was crushing as well. Many of us thought that his rival (Nodirbek Abdusatorov Uzbekistan) may have resigned in the next few steps. However, Gukesh did not get success. Gukesh could not stop playing for the win, even when the team had already won.
After the tournament, Gukesh revealed how Anand’s vigorous conversation after his loss to Nodirbek had excited him. He said, ‘He said these things have happened many times in his career. Anand was showing an example of a time when he lost from a win situation. I felt good after that that even such a great player has gone through the same things that I am going through,” Gukesh had said.
Anand felt that the medal winning show of the Indian women’s team should inspire more women players to take up the sport in future. “In the women’s section, India’s performance was a dramatic improvement. In general, I think we need to build on this momentum and that will happen when we organize more tournaments for women and juniors that will motivate players to play chess at a young age. Events like Tata Steel Chess for Women this year are a step in the right direction.”
While India put up some scintillating performances, fans remembered Khiladi Anand. It looked like if Legend had been playing himself, India could have done better than what they did in the event. The newly elected FIDE vice-president said he would pick and choose tournaments as it has done in the past few years.
“I am yet to decide which will be the next event. Like this year, I expect to play some tournaments in the months of May, June and July, but nothing is planned yet. I love playing chess and will continue to play some tournaments.”