Can India’s NextGen of chess players live upto the expectations in the era of Gukesh and Praggnannandhaa

“Obviously, we were very optimistic about Indian chess some months ago. But if players like Aravindh and Pranav Venkatesh join the party, then of course that’s great for us,” Viswanathan Anand declared after Pranav’s victory.

Pranav’s victory at the World Junior Chess Championship came a year after Divya Deshmukh had won the equivalent girls’ title.

After Anand, India struggled to produce a steady stream of super-elite chess talents. For a brief period, Pentala Harikrishna and later Vidit kept India relevant in elite chess, but such exceptional players remained rare. The era dominated by Harikrishna, Krishnan Sasikiran, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly saw a phase of stagnation before the next generation, including Vidit, Adhiban Baskaran, and SP Sethuraman, began to emerge. This shift has gained momentum with the rise of a new wave of extremely talented young players, signalling an exciting new chapter for Indian chess.

Skilled chess trainers

A significant part of this success can be attributed to a dedicated group of highly skilled chess trainers, led by renowned coaches like GM RB Ramesh, Vishal Sareen, Vishnu Prasanna, Akash G, Swayams Mishra, Abhijeet Gupta, and Srinath Narayanan. These trainers, many of whom were top-level players themselves, transitioned to coaching at a relatively young age. Their deep understanding of the game and ability to nurture young talent have benefited hundreds if not thousands of aspiring chess players across the country.

There are already three Indians — Gukesh (World No. 3), Arjun (No. 5) and Praggnanandhaa (No. 8) — in the top 10 spots in the FIDE rating list for March 2025. There are nine more Indians in the Top 100 in the open section.

In the past couple of years, the Gukesh, Pragg, and Arjun troika have sped past average growth milestones at the speed of light. Gukesh became the youngest world champion in history. Arjun became one of the youngest to break the 2,800 rating ceiling. And Pragg was one of the youngest past 2,600 ratings.

The next wave of players may struggle to reach these milestones as quickly as those three, says Srinath, who was the captain of the Indian team that won the gold at the Chess Olympiad in the open section last year.

“The kind of success that someone like Gukesh reached at the age that he did, I’m not sure when we’ll see that again. But we certainly have an exceptionally talented talent line, just keeping on getting replenished,” Srinath said.

“In another generation, they (the next wave of players) would be amongst the best of their age. But it’s just that someone like Gukesh and a few others have just been mind-blowingly exceptional. Gukesh literally beat the World Championship record by several years. So it’s a bit of a Sachin Tendulkar kind of thing, someone coming in and being able to play for India at 15. We didn’t see that happen anytime later. It’s becoming more and more difficult for someone to be able to do that because it’s become harder to become part of the Indian team as well,” added Srinath.

Among the rising stars is Nihal Sarin, who gained prominence even earlier than peers like Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa. However, Nihal’s growth in classical chess has yet to match his reputation as one of India’s best speed chess players and a master tactician.

Despite his immense potential, Nihal has struggled to maintain consistent progress. And for him like others, the competition is only getting tougher, with young talents like Pranav Anand and AR Ilamparthi — gold medallists at the 2022 World Youth Championship in the U-16 and U-14 categories, respectively — ready to graduate among senior pros.

Opportunities limited

With Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun likely to dominate the top echelons of sport for many years, if not decades, the opportunities for the next wave stars will be limited. This is what Arjun experienced last year, getting barely any invitations to top-tier elite invitational events since organisers were enamoured by the likes of Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa.

Now with Arjun also establishing himself among the elite, the chances for someone like a Pranav to get an invite to a Tata Steel Masters or a Norway Chess is exceptionally difficult. But they are still finding their way in. For example, Leon Luke Mendonca earned the right to compete in the Masters’ section of the Tata Steel Chess event at Wijk aan Zee this year by winning the challengers section last year.

The likes of Raunak Sadhwani, Karthikeyan Murali and Abhimanyu Puranik will either have to wait for open events to gradually improve their rating like Arjun did or punch above their weight at FIDE events like the World Rapid and Blitz Championship to gain prominence like Divya and Vantika Agrawal did at the Olympiad in Budapest.

Conjointly, the gen-next and their journey will heavily depend on seizing opportunities to shine on the global stage and fortunately, they know how to deal with it.

However, this renewed wave of success has also led to a growing concern: the burden of expectations placed on young players from the very start of their careers. Reflecting on this trend, Grandmaster Ramesh highlighted how parental attitudes have shifted over the years.

“In my experience, earlier generations of parents were less imposing and didn’t set extremely high expectations at the outset of a child’s career. They focused on monitoring progress and setting goals gradually. Today, however, parents often have lofty ambitions from the very beginning, driven by the success of other children on the international stage and they believe their child is capable of doing the same,” Ramesh explained in a recent podcast with CircleChess.