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India Today
6 days ago
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- India Today
From the India Today archives (2025)
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated January 6, 2025)Gukesh Dommaraju doesn't have many childhood memories but there is one that's clearly etched in his mind. As a seven-year-old rookie chess player, standing with his father far back in a packed room at Chennai's Hyatt Regency hotel to watch Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen duel it out for the world championship title. The kid couldn't see the black-and-white squares but the sight of the two greats 'was inspiring' enough that he envisioned a dream then and there. 'I thought it'd be cool to be inside that glass box one day,' he says. Four years later, in a now viral clip he'd articulate the desire better: 'I want to become the youngest world chess champion.' On December 12, 2024, Gukesh, all of 18, fulfilled the wish by winning a thrilling contest against Ding Liren that lasted 56 hours, spread across 14 days. In doing so, the teenager not only broke legend Garry Kasparov's record to become chess's youngest world champion ever, but also became only the second Indian to win the title (after Anand's heroics in the noughties).advertisementBut Gukesh's splendid run in 2024—winning the Candidates face-off to become the challenger, a team and individual gold at the Chess Olympiad, then the world title—is a story within a story. The larger one is that India is today a bonafide chess powerhouse, a fecund ground for grandmasters (GMs) who are captivating the world. It's a whole Gen Z army out there. Take Arjun Erigaisi (21) who, earlier this month, entered the elite 2800 Elo ratings club, only the 16th player in history to do so. Besides these two, R. Praggnanandhaa (19) and Vidit Gujrathi (30), their partners from the gold medal-winning Olympiad 2024 team, are among the five Indians in the FIDE (Fdration Internationale des checs) top 20 rankings. Meanwhile, at the Global Chess League in October, 20-year-old Nihal Sarin was adjudged the season's most valuable player after guiding his team, PBG Alaskan Knights, into the CHECK AND MATE: Gukesh moments after beating Ding Liren of China in the 14th and last game, Dec. 12. (Photographs by FIDE) THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHTIndia's groundbreaking year in chess isn't over yet as Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani (19), Aravindh Chithambaram (25) and Pranav V. (18) are among 10 Indians competing in the ongoing World Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York (December 26-30). Also in the Big Apple are the rising queens of the chessboard: R. Vaishali (23), who was tied second at the Candidates; Divya Deshmukh (19), the reigning junior girls champion; and women's International Master (IM) Vantika Agrawal (22). The trio was also part of the women's team which won gold at the Chess Olympiad in has described it as 'an Indian earthquake in chess'. For India now has 85 GMs, over half of them coming after Anand's world championship triumphs. Currently, an estimated 200 Indians are professional chess players. Hear Generation Next talk of chess and one gets a sense that this is less about success and big money and more about mad love and respect for the game. 'One move just changes the whole position and result,' says Pragg. 'It's what keeps me excited about looking at games and learning new things.' In elder sister Vaishali, the 2023 World Cup finalist is lucky to have someone at home with whom he can discuss all things chess. The duo is world's first brother-sister grandmaster pair. 'You have these opening ideas which you want to show but you cannot discuss with others,' he says. 'If I find something fascinating about a position and vice-versa, we discuss. We learn from each other.'advertisementThis generation also has distinct personalities and playing styles. If Gukesh and Pragg step into the field with vibhuti on their foreheads, Divya's game mode is hair down and lipstick on. If Gukesh appears as impassive as a poker player, Vidit Gujrathi is all emotion when on the board. International Master Sagar Shah, who is also the founder and CEO of popular content platform ChessBase India, singles out their differences. 'Gukesh has this huge ability for creative play at the board, Pragg has amazing endgame technique, Arjun has the ability to create complications which very few can navigate,' says Shah. Their strong showing has seen India emerge as the second biggest market after the US for the game's most popular website. That's 18.5 million registered users and a monthly active user base of 8 million. 'In terms of viewership, we are the fastest growing market,' says Avadh Shah, country director for Pragg and Vaishali have their mother, Nagalakshmi, accompanying them for tournaments, Gukesh relies on his father, Rajinikanth, an ENT specialist who put his practice on hold to travel with his son. Contrary to popular perception, chess is an expensive pursuit, with training fees coming at a hefty cost for families from middle-class backgrounds. Gukesh's mother Padmakumari, who teaches at the Madras Medical College (MMC), speaks of a time as recently as 2018-19 when the couple 'had no money' to fund their son's dream to be the youngest Grandmaster, which in turn required participation in tournaments abroad. The Dommarajus had their batchmates from the MMC pool in money to help them out. 'They were our first sponsors and we'll be grateful to them forever,' says KING'S GAMBITThe story of India's chess boom begins with the Covid pandemic when all the world was confined to their homes. The Netflix 2020 series, The Queen's Gambit, had generated a wave of interest in chess globally with many taking to playing chess online, but back home in India it was a king in not-so-shiny armour who was making a big push. His name? Viswanathan Anand. Having just hit 50, the five-time world champion's decision to step back a bit from his own playing career to give back to the sport would become a game-changing move for Indian December 2020, Anand partnered with WestBridge Capital to start WestBridge Anand Chess Academy a.k.a. WACA and identified a few promising GMs to take under its wing. 'For a couple of decades now, India has been one of the strongest countries in youth championships. The goal we set for ourselves was to help our most talented youngsters break into the top,' Anand told INDIA TODAY. Among the earliest benefactors of Anand's mentoring and online training sessions with top GMs like Grzegorz Gajewski, Artur Yusupov and Boris Gelfand were Gukesh, Pragg, Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani. 'Vishy Sir's is the biggest contribution,' says Gukesh. 'He and WestBridge did a great job of finding talent and providing amazing support. We were working super hard, and we had the best technologies also.' Adds Pragg, 'We didn't have tournaments in 2020 so the classes came at the correct time and we were all excited to attend the sessions. You can discuss anything with Vishy Sir, the games, what to focus on in training, what's lacking in one's game....'advertisementTo deploy Kasparov's now-famous comment, it wasn't long before 'Vishy's children' were on the loose. At the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, both the men's and women's team won bronze medals, with Gukesh and Nihal winning individual golds too. The men's and women's team would also win silver at the Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou. Anand says, 'I saw that Gukesh was very talented. Gukesh and Pragg, their work ethic was just off the charts. Nihal was a bit more mysterious. They were all very ambitious. I noticed this pattern that they all motivate each other. The moment one gets something, the others are driven.'Anand was the mastermind, but a host of other factors abetted the rise of the young bloods. The first generation of IMs and GMs started coaching academies which produced players like Vishnu Prasanna (one of Gukesh's longstanding coaches), R.B. Ramesh (coach of Pragg and Vaishali), Srinath Narayanan (Arjun, Nihal and Divya) and Abhijit Kunte. Anand likes to say that they coached 'the golden generation' of CHESS INTO HOMESThe credit for chess's growing appeal in India also goes to the unlikeliest of suspects—stand-up comedians. Popular comic Samay Raina, a chess enthusiast himself, started streaming games with peers such as Tanmay Bhatt, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Anirban Dasgupta and others on his YouTube show, Comedians Over the Board, in 2022. In March 2023, Raina would play Gukesh and lose after being in a winning position. The seven-minute video streamed on ChessBase India's YouTube channel has thus far netted 7.3 million views. Samay's chatty style and humorous commentary has gone a long way in changing the perception of chess being a game for nerds. Or as Anand, showing his funny side, told Samay: 'You've turned chess into a joke.'The chess fraternity acknowledges the impact of online creators like Samay and Biswa Kalyan. The latter even co-directed the documentary, Candidates, on India's chess prodigies, which will release in 2025. 'The difficult part about chess was that it was conceived as a hard, intimidating game. We had to take down that glass barrier,' says known chess commentator and IM Tania Sachdev who was part of the Olympiad gold-winning team. 'Getting a non-professional chess player voice like that of Samay into the scene really exponentially grew the game. The audience could relate to the game, have fun with it.' Sachdev and Anand also lauded the efforts of Sagar Shah and ChessBase India which 'opened up the game to audiences'. Starting in 2015, Sagar began covering the chess scene in India, interviewing its youngest and most talented practitioners as well as providing technical material for chess enthusiasts to hone their recently, both Samay and Sagar were at the centre of the first ever screening-cum-livestreaming of the 14 games of the World Chess Championships, held at The Habitat in Mumbai. Partnering with it had Anand and comedians like Samay, Bhatt and others joining Sagar and Tania Sachdev giving commentary through the long games. 'In chess, visuals don't do the talking,' says Sachdev, who is backed by Red Bull. 'You have to make chess accessible and entertaining while being true to it. You cannot make viewers feel like yeh kya ho raha hai.'Audiences cheered the breakthrough moves, broke into Gukesh chants and there was even a live rendition of a song dedicated to him, 'Go Go Guki Go'. Online viewership was impressive too. The average reach of each game was 1.5 million views with the highest coming for the final game, 3.9 million views. Another promising stat—as much as 70 per cent of the online audience was from the 19-34 age group. While Tamil Nadu continues to be the mecca of chess in India, the most views for the livestream came from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and the run of the past two years is anything to go by, India's chess future looks extremely promising. For professional players, it's an expensive pursuit, finding funding for the training and the travel to tournaments abroad. Luckily, apart from public sector companies, more private companies are now betting big money to support India's bright stars. Gukesh and Vaishali have WestBridge, Quantbox and Adani back Arjun and Pragg respectively, and Nihal Sarin's got Akshayakalpa. The All India Chess Federation also plays its part; a portion of its Rs 65 crore annual budget is used in contracts for 42 top players in seven different age categories (up to 19 years) as well as free coaching to 320 other selected players. Federation president Nitin Narang says, 'Often, players drop their passion owing to financial constraints, but with financial support and other facilities, they will be better positioned to excel.'The question now is, can they shun the noise and stay focused on the game, more so in this age of social media where scrutiny is relentless. 'I have told them how I do and did things,' says Anand. 'They have to take that and adapt it to a new time. Many of them have impressed me with how quickly they have grown into their own.'It helps that chess's Gen Z generation of Grandmasters are committed and value their role as the game's ambassadors. 'Gukesh will be the next Virat Kohli of India,' proclaims Sagar Shah, who has been tracking his evolution since 2016. 'When he says, 'I don't want to cheat at anything in life,' it's just the person he is. All of them are hardworking, honest and prioritise the processes over result. For youngsters, they are great role models.'For the world champion, reaching the summit of chess is only the beginning of his journey in chess. Gukesh brings a Rajini-like swagger to what is perceived as a serious sport just in the manner he strides his way to the chessboard or adjusts his shirt collar during the game. A fan of biographies of sporting greats, he understands the significance of a healthy mind which is why he engaged mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton—of Indian cricket team fame—in his team. There's also a self-awareness, which is why even after becoming world champion he declares he isn't the best and has much to do to catch up with the mighty Magnus Carlsen. If the games at the world championships were anything to go by, Gukesh is an audacious challenger, who refuses to give in. Persistent, he sits with eyes closed calculating moves that seem to bamboozle opponents. Ding certainly seemed frazzled. 'I just like to play chess, yeah,' Gukesh said at a press conference after one of the games. In the simplicity of that statement is hidden a grand ambition, a player who wants to be a GOAT (greatest of all time).The real rewards of Gukesh's achievement and those of others of his generation will perhaps be felt in the decades to come. For now, at the end of a tumultuous year, India's young grandmasters spearheaded by Gukesh have done enough to lift our collective pride and justify why the INDIA TODAY editors declared them the 2024 Newsmaker of the Year. Here's hoping India's chess tribe rules the squares for many more years DESHMUKH, 19IM, World Junior Girls Champion (Photo: Mandar Deodhar) Boring. That was five-year-old Divya Deshmukh's first impression of chess until the competitive streak kicked in. 'After I started playing tournaments, I wanted to finish on top of the table and be best at it,' says Deshmukh, who is vying to be Nagpur's third GM and only the fourth female to achieve the honour. After a breakthrough 2024 which saw her clinch team gold and individual gold at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, become the girls' world junior champion and cross 2500 Elo ratings, Divya's goals for 2025 are simple: 'Focus on mental and physical wellbeing, be healthy and happy.', 21GrandmasterRanked higher than Gukesh at No. 4 and with a better Elo rating (2801), the boy from Hanamkonda, Telangana, is seen as the one most likely to challenge the champion for the throne. An erstwhile protg of the WestBridge Academy, Arjun will aim to qualify for Candidates 2026. Adept at rapid and blitz formats, he is known for his positional clarity and ability to leave his opponents perplexed with complex moves.R. PRAGGNANANDHAA, 19 & VAISHALI RAMESHBABU, 23Grandmasters (Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE) She thinks he's 'messy'; he thinks she does 'things perfectly', which can at times be 'annoying'. What binds them is their unbridled love for chess. Four years her junior, Pragg took to the game only after watching big sister Vaishali play it. The duo became the first siblings to attain the Grandmaster tag and qualify for the prestigious Candidates tournament. While father Rameshbabu manages their media engagements and playing calendar, mother Nagalakshmi is a constant presence by their side at key tournaments. Says Pragg, 'There were many difficult moments financially but we never felt the pinch because they never told us about it. They have motivated us and kept us going during tough tournaments. They have been very important in our journey.'Subscribe to India Today Magazine
News18
25-05-2025
- Sport
- News18
Gukesh Lands In Norway Ahead Of 'Fun Challenge' Against Magnus Carlsen
Last Updated: Gukesh will take on World No.1 Carlsen in the classical format for the first time since his crowning moment at the World Championships against Ding Liren. Indian Chess wizard D Gukesh landed in Stavanger ahead of his highly anticipated Norway Chess 2025 event slated to get underway on the 26th of May at the Sparebank 1 Sor-Norge headquarters. The youngest World Champion, Gukesh, will take on World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the classical format at the event for the first time since his crowning moment at the Worlds against Ding Liren. ALSO READ| Real Madrid Officially Appoint Xabi Alonso As New Head Coach Till 2028 'I feel great being here. I've had good memories from Norway," Gukesh said. 'I am sure playing Magnus here in a classical game will be a fun challenge. Also, for the spectators, it is about the world champion versus the No.1 player in the world," he added. 'It surely sounds very exciting so it's surely something I am very happy to give, myself and the chess fans. And I hope it will be a treat," the teenager continued. advetisement In 2023, Gukesh competed in Norway Chess, finishing third and earning vital FIDE Circuit points that qualified him for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. This achievement made him the third-youngest player in history to qualify for a Candidates Tournament, following Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen. By August 2023, Gukesh set another record by becoming the youngest player ever to attain a rating of 2750. In September 2023, he surpassed Viswanathan Anand to become India's top-ranked player, a title Anand had held for 37 years. Gukesh started 2024 strongly, winning the Tata Steel Masters in January and dominating the Candidates Tournament to secure his place in the World Chess Championship match. At the Olympiad, he led Team India to gold and earned an individual gold medal on board one with an outstanding performance. Regarding the expectations after his recent success, Gukesh remarked, 'It is a new level. But when I see it as a challenge to prove to myself that I can handle this. Even though the expectations are high, I can meet them if I keep working hard and doing my best." Gukesh also discussed the challenges of a classical game, highlighting the importance of managing one's thoughts. 'In a classical game, you end up playing for five hours, and during those times, you cannot constantly think about the game. Random thoughts will come to mind, but it's crucial to stay focused on the game and revisit those thoughts later. This is why you take notes. You can't afford weak moments," he explained. The draw for Norway Chess 2025 and Norway Chess Women 2025 will be held later today. India's Arjun Erigaisi will participate in Norway Chess, which will feature a strong line-up, including Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (USA), and Wei Yi (China). In Norway Chess Women 2025, Ju Wenjun (China), Lei Tingjie (China), Koneru Humpy (India), Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), Vaishali R (India), and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Spain) will compete for top honors. Location : Norway First Published: May 25, 2025, 15:39 IST
South China Morning Post
13-05-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Grandmaster Ding Liren and Kao, 15, play ‘super-crazy' chess game on Hong Kong tram
Hong Kong teenager Jamison Kao managed to draw a 'super-crazy' chess game with mainland Chinese grandmaster and former world champion Ding Liren at the weekend – but the city's No 1 still said he was a 'bit disappointed'. Advertisement Ding was visiting for Sunday's Harrow Hong Kong Scholastic Open Chess Tournament, which featured more than 100 schools. And on Saturday, Ding took part in a 'simul event', in which he took on 12 players including Kao simultaneously, while riding a tram through the city. Kao, 15, is a candidate master, having reached a rating of 2,200 or higher from the game's world governing body, the FIDE – a stepping stone towards higher titles such as international master and grandmaster. 'I never really expected to draw with him before I started,' Kao said. 'I thought there would be a decent fight but in the end I would lose. Ding Liren at the Harrow Hong Kong Scholastic Open Chess Tournament on Sunday. Photo: Sun Yeung 'As the game progressed from a super-crazy position into the middle game, to a stable advantage for me, I was no longer wondering if I could draw, but rather how I could win.
