The internet has been abuzz with how India is brimming with young talent in thousands, waiting to burst out the wings in chess.
It took longer than what was ideal for Indian chess to move on from Viswanathan Anand, now pushing 55. But when the replacements to India’s No 1 and a global legend for more than 30 years arrived, they weren’t just pretenders. They came in droves. Dommaraju Gukesh, 17, secured the right to challenge Chinese Ding Liren for the World Championship later this year, as the Candidates tournament was taken by storm owing to the presence of five Indians out of 16, including three in the open category. The high tide had been surging for a couple of years, with the emergence of teen sensations who were restless to leave the prodigy tags behind and fight the big boys. Ultimately, it was Gukesh, India’s youngest GM when 12, who breezed through the field which boasted the three big names, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomnichtchi and Hikaru Nakamura.
Gukesh would triumph in the battle of the next generation, leaping past the adventurous and entertaining but unstable game of fellow Indian, R Praggnanandha and the brittle battling of Iranian-French Alireza. He surprised even the King who casually tossed aside his crown, Magnus Carlsen, with his composure. Carlsen would later grudgingly accept that his assessment of the non-expressive Gukesh had been off the mark, and he had underestimated how strong and stable Gukesh could be while chasing down his goal of earning a Worlds seat. Kasparov dubbed them ‘Children of Vishy on the loose’ and praise would pour in from the world, including the next man in Gukesh’s sights, Liren who said that Gukesh had maturity not matching his age and unique positional understanding. “Although I have the advantage in classical chess, he is a difficult opponent to face,” the Chinese conceded to Tarjei Svensen. It’s the start of a delicious India-China face-off, and the audacious Indian wearing a veil of inscrutability unaffected by nerves will have a global chess audience captivated.
The internet has been abuzz with how India is brimming with young talent in thousands, waiting to burst out the wings in chess. Former players have assumed the roles of mentors and coaches. Gukesh himself was steered by GM Prasanna who has kept his ward fresh by rationing his exposure to chess engines as machine programs can wear out competitive drive through their sterile algorithms and screen tedium. Gukesh’s progress through books and human-nurtured critical thinking and intellect, keeps him creative and strangely unanticipated, though going forward it poses risks. The entire Indian chess fraternity is up and brimming. It was a hurriedly organised Super Grandmaster tournament in December by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu that allowed the third youngest to 2700, to reach the Candidates. The Indian ecosystem is reminiscent of the Soviet surge of the last century. Praggnanandha did his bit to stall Nepomniachtchi, allowing Gukesh to rise. Carlsen remains the ultimate Goliath to be slayed by Gukesh, though he was the youngest to beat him in classical chess. But Ding Liren will not be resting easy knowing what’s coming for him — a calm 17-year-old who just could not be second-guessed through memorising of computers.
