Young stars can now dream of making it big in chess, which was not the case before
Young stars can now dream of making it big in chess, which was not the case before
‘Thambi’, the mascot 44th Chess OlympiadGreeted me immediately after landing at Chennai airport. Wearing his white dhoti and shirt, he welcomed every traveler by joining hands with blue hoardings. I met him several times during the smooth drive to Mamallapuram, the site of the Olympiad. The world’s most prestigious team event for chess, featuring more than 1,700 players from 186 countries, has created a great deal of buzz. It is getting the attention it deserves from the public and media in India. It may be the biggest chess event for India, but it has been preceded by some major events, such as the 2000 and 2013 World Championships. However, those events did not capture the imagination of the public like the Olympiads.
Viswanathan Anand was common in both those events. I remember the frenzy he created in the Hyatt Regency of Delhi more than two decades ago. I saw how much he meant to Indian chess fans. It was my second meeting with him. I was not a journalist when I first met him. I was one of the players in the Kerala State Junior Chess Championship in Pala. He had come for a felicitation after winning the World Junior Championship in 1987; This was a turning point in his career and for Indian chess.
When Anand played Magnus Carlsen at home 13 years after his first title, media interest in chess was greatly increased. I remember chatting with members of a particularly large Norwegian contingent at the Hyatt Regency in Chennai, who didn’t want to miss the possible crowning of their first world champion. Carlson did not let him down. Now, he is back in Chennai and is one of the biggest attractions in the Olympiad. He arrived soon after relinquishing his world title, which he won five times in a row, citing a lack of motivation.
move fast
Interest in chess in India has increased even more since Carlsen’s last visit. Live streaming of chess tournaments, rapid progress in the game made during the pandemic (it’s adapted to the virtual world), the fact that India jointly won the Online Chess Olympiad with Russia, the popularity of the Netflix series Queen’s Gambit, which took the sport to the mainstream, and the emergence of a prolific group of teenagers who are ready to take on the world, are all contributing to the phenomenon. Anand guiding the youth augurs well for Indian chess. R. Young stars like Pragyananand, Arjun Arrigasi, Nihal Sarin, D. Gukesh and Raunak Sadhwani can now dream of making it really big in chess, which was not the case earlier.
An anecdote shows this well. Early in his career, when Anand was traveling by train, a fellow passenger started talking to him. “What do you do?” he asked Ananda. “I play chess,” said Anand. The traveler said, “But what do you do for a living?” Anand then replied, “I play chess.” The man said: “Who do you think you are? Viswanathan Anand?”
Another Indian star of that time also had to answer a difficult question when he was introduced as a chess player. “Single or Couple?” The person wanted to know. A chess star might not have to go through such experiences today.
Since then India’s knowledge of chess has increased significantly. People know that the possibilities for a gifted child are immense. That’s why parents are taking their kids to chess classes and making great sacrifices. For example, during a tournament several years ago, I met a soft-spoken man who told me that he had quit his job as a lecturer so that he could focus on his daughter’s career in chess. Today she is the strongest female player of Chennai Chess Olympiad. And you guessed it right: that’s Koneru Humpy.
ajithkumar.pk@thehindu.co.in