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India Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- 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
New Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Inside the chess world's race to ace the Indian market
STAVANGER: The FIDE World Cup is scheduled to be held in India later this year. The third season of the Global Chess League (GCL), owned and conducted by an Indian company, may be held in Chennai in December. Another edition of the Chennai Grandmasters, India's only super tournament, is scheduled to be held in August. It may be bigger and better than the first two. Viswanathan Anand, a former five-time world champion, is one of FIDE's top officials. D Gukesh is the reigning world champion. Arjun Erigaisi, now in the top five, had to play and win a lot of open tournaments. These days, Erigaisi gets invited to a lot of top-tier events; an indication of his standing. Likewise with Aravindh Chithambaram, R Praggnanandhaa and so on. In short, if you are an Indian — or an Indian entity — involved in chess, this is boom time. Everybody wants in on the gravy train or the 'Indian market'. It, of course, wasn't like this before. "The pandemic changed it from an Indian (chess) perspective," says Srinath Narayanan, a GM who has organised several events over the last few years. "Indian players were getting invites to the big events but not at the level we are seeing now. But you can also understand why they are getting invites to the super tournaments now, there are two of them in the top five." The 'two of them' Narayanan refers to are featuring at Norway Chess —Gukesh and Erigaisi. Here's Kjell Madland, the tournament's founder and tournament director. "India is so important," Madland says. "It's a very big country and it's growing... the economy, technology and also they have so many young players. It's very important to have connections with Indian players and the market in India." Madland and his team at Stavanger, the annual destination for Norway Chess, have already held exploratory talks with stakeholders in India apropos holding events in India under their umbrella. It's not hard to imagine why they would want to do so. It could be a case of future-proofing the brand in a post Magnus Carlsen world (the World No. 1 could well stop playing Classical chess from next year). "In the first year (2013), Vishy (Viswanathan) Anand played and he was the world champion. Even from the beginning, we knew India was important." That kind of sentiment is reflected in the number of Indians in the draw this year. There are four (two each in the Open and women's), a record for Indian players at the tournament in its 13-year history. Narayanan has a theory as to why that may be the case across invitational closed competitions. "There are a fair few players in the top-10 and top-20 so they have got there with the way they have performed. Take both Erigaisi and Gukesh, for example. They have won a lot of open tournaments and now are getting invited to super events fairly regularly." It's not just the Indian players who have been front and centre. In 2024, the Tamil Nadu government as well as the All India Chess Federation (AICF) submitted two separate bids to host the World Championship. A year earlier, the TN government organised a super tournament to help one of Gukesh or Erigaisi to qualify for the Candidates via the circuit (the former capitalised). Narayanan, tasked with the role of bringing that competition to life, explains. "Chess is a difficult event to get sponsors on but I would say it has been better to get sponsors on board in 2024 and now. Because, in 2023, it existed only as a concept." Young Indian GMs, including the likes of Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh, are at the top of the wish-list because of their social media followings. While appearance fees aren't big in chess, organisers of the big events, especially in 2025, may prefer to get on board a player who has a bigger social media footprint. "If you are looking at two similarly rated players but have only a slot, their social media accounts can play a role," Narayanan says. It's like this because there is the added element of the tournament receiving potentially more eyeballs on social media. Wednesday's pairings: Open: Magnus Carlsen vs Wei Yi, Fabiano Caruana vs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh vs Hikaru Nakamura. Women: Koneru Humpy vs Sara Khadem, Ju Wenjun vs R Vaishali, Lei Tingjie vs Anna Muzychuk.
Toronto Sun
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is forced into a draw in a showdown against ‘the world'
Published May 20, 2025 • 2 minute read FILE - Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, left, of SG Alpine Warriors plays against Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Chingari Gulf Titans during Global Chess League in Dubai United Arab Emirates, on July 1, 2023. Photo by Kamran Jebreili / AP Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen was forced into a draw Monday by more than 143,000 people worldwide playing against him in a single, record-setting game. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Billed as 'Magnus Carlsen vs. The World,' the online match began April 4 on the world's largest chess website, and was the first-ever online freestyle game to feature a world champion. The mega-match ended after Team World checked Carlsen's king a third time, a stunning outcome after had predicted Carlsen would win by a wide margin. Members of Team World — anyone around the globe could sign up — voted on each move and each side had 24 hours to make their play. Carlsen played the white pieces. The world forced the draw on move 32 after checking Carlsen's king three times in the corner of the board where it could not escape. The rule is called 'threefold repetition,' meaning all of the pieces on the board are in the exact same position three times to prompt a draw. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Very, very sound chess' Carlsen, 34, became the world's top-ranked player in 2010 at 19 and has won five World Championships. He achieved the highest-ever chess rating of 2882 in 2014 and has remained the undisputed world No. 1 for more than a decade. 'Overall, 'the world' has played very, very sound chess from the start. Maybe not going for most enterprising options, but kind of keeping it more in vein with normal chess — which isn't always the best strategy, but it worked out well this time,' Carlsen said in a statement Friday as Monday's draw seemed imminent. In a freestyle match, the bishops, knights, rooks, queen and king are randomly placed around the board at the start while the pawns are in their usual spots. Freestyle chess is popular because it allows players to be more creative and avoid memorization. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We made history' This was the third 'vs. The World' record-setting online game. In 1999, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov played against more than 50,000 people on the Microsoft Network and won after four months. Last year, Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand won his 'vs. The World' match against nearly 70,000 players on In the virtual chat this week, players appeared split on whether to force the draw — and claim the glory — or to keep playing against Carlsen, even if it ultimately meant a loss. 'Don't Draw! Let's keep playing Magnus,' one user wrote. 'This is an opportunity that won't come along again. I'd rather play the Master all the way to the end and see if we can battle it out another 20 or 30 moves! Let's have some FUN!!!' Another added: 'Thanks Magnus for such a great game. We made history.' Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen broke a dress code with jeans. Now he's selling them for charity
FILE - Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, left, of SG Alpine Warriors plays against Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Chingari Gulf Titans during Global Chess League in Dubai United Arab Emirates, on July 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File) NEW YORK (AP) — Top-ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen is turning his controversial denim into some greens — for charity. The Norwegian chess grandmaster announced this week that he is auctioning off the Italian luxury brand jeans that started a dress code dispute at December's World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships. Carlsen ultimately quit the New York competition after accepting a $200 fine while refusing to change his pants. While the tournament's governing body agreed to loosen the dress code, Carlsen is parting with his infamous britches. Advertisement Chess fanatics and #JeansGate followers now have the chance to own Carlsen's pair of size 32 regular fit Corneliani jeans. The auction is scheduled to end March 1. Listed as pre-owned but in 'good' condition on eBay, the pants' highest offer was $8,100 as of Feb. 21. Proceeds will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a national youth-mentoring charity that carries out its mission through local chapters in neighborhoods across all 50 states and 12 countries. According to the auction, they will be used for 'youth mentorship at chess clinics, community events, and beyond, to build connection, belonging, and enrich the lives of young people through the game.' ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
