India’s long wait for a world champion may not be far away as chess wizard Viswanathan Anand is hopeful that “some Indians” will qualify for the Candidates tournament next year.
There are seven slots available for candidates in Toronto that will determine the challenger to recently crowned champions Ding Liren at the next World Championship in 2024.
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“He has good chances to qualify. It can happen in the next cycle, hopefully,” Anand told PTI in an exclusive virtual interaction on the sidelines of the announcement of the Global Chess League.
Barring Anand, who is the top-ranked Indian at No. 9, seven others from the country are in the FIDE top 100.
Five-time world champion Anand has already announced that he will not fight for it again.
But players like D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnananda and Nihal Sarin have shown a lot of promise.
Anand couldn’t agree more.
“We have many promising youngsters. If we’re lucky, we might have an Indian challenger for Ding Liren.
“But at least, I hope some Indians qualify for the candidates next time. It will be very exciting,” said the 53-year-old, who guides some of them at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy.
FIDE Deputy President Anand also spoke on Ding’s success and expressed hope that it would further popularize the game in China.
“Definitely, it is an interesting sign that China has both men’s and women’s titles. It is quite interesting. They were also Olympiad champions in 2018 and did not compete in Chennai last year.
“Hopefully Ding’s win makes the sport more popular in China. As a vice president, that’s what I’m interested to see.”
Recently, Ding became China’s first men’s world champion after clinching the fourth and last rapid game of the tie-break stage with black in the fourth and final rapid game of the tie-break stage with a 68-move win over Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The battle for the World Championship lasted three weeks from start to finish, consisting of tie-breaks of 14 classical games and four rapid games.
“Both participants very boldly attacked each other. Essentially, they believed they could defeat the other player.
“They went in and did everything they could, and the games were entertaining – six decisive games, even several draws were exciting to the end as well as an attractive tiebreaker. We’ve never had such spectators , and it’s great for sports.
“The match was very, very good for the World Championship cycle. It hasn’t been this exciting in a long time. There was a lot of discussion as to why and how. But we see that the current format can produce great competition as long as Players go for it that way.”
Asked whether China is the new chess powerhouse, Anand said: “For me, it is not clear that they are definitely going to dominate. Whether Asia is going to dominate is an interesting question.
“If you look at the top four countries in the world in chess, it is China, India, America and Russia. We are usually talking about large countries where a large number of people play chess. I think it will continue.”
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There should be a thorough investigation into the allegations of wrestlers
Anand talked about the growing wrestling controversy and termed the wrestlers’ allegations as “very, very serious”.
Indian champion wrestlers like Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia have taken to the streets demanding his arrest.
WFI chief and BJP leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been accused of sexual harassment.
“Justice must be done. We need a full investigation. I hope that the allegations made by him will be thoroughly investigated. These are very serious allegations and so I hope they investigate thoroughly.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)