There was loads of seismic exercise in chess over the previous couple of years. However the tremors emanating from the epicentre — India — have really shaken up the game in 2024.
Nobody can deny that 2024 has been the 12 months of Indian chess. And Indian chess’ finest 12 months on the chessboard too.
It was a 12 months that began with the Candidates match in Toronto. The Candidates — a take a look at any participant should cross if they’re to earn a shot on the world champion’s crown — can accommodate solely eight gamers, who make the minimize via varied, equally treacherous paths. Some make it through rating, others through the FIDE circuit, and the remaining through profitable designated tournaments just like the FIDE Grand Swiss.
The Candidates is designed to be powerful to qualify for. Regardless of that, three Indians — Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi — made the minimize within the eight-man subject within the open class whereas two ladies — Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu — have been within the eight-women subject. It’s harder nonetheless to win, as a result of it’s an occasion the place solely ending first issues, which is why each recreation is a knife struggle.
Gukesh navigated via the sector which had a mixture of greenhorns like Pragg and veterans of many Candidates races like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura to safe a shot at Ding Liren’s throne.
The Candidates match foreshadowed issues to return sooner or later. If Pragg doesn’t get you, Vidit will. If Vidit doesn’t, Arjun Erigaisi will. If he doesn’t, then there’s nonetheless Gukesh to fret about. Former world champion Magnus Carlsen skilled this final 12 months on the FIDE World Cup, the place he triumphed, however not earlier than he needed to defeat each Gukesh and Pragg.
“For years now, I’ve been anticipating to face Indians in each tremendous match there may be. And if you happen to take a look at the youth ranges, Indians are completely dominating. I’m totally impressed by the chess revolution that has occurred in India,” Carlsen had informed The Indian Categorical earlier this 12 months. “The present era of Indians is actually the strongest. And probably the most harmful.”
The upside to India’s chess dominance
Successful the Candidates made Gukesh the youngest man to earn a shot on the world champion’s crown in historical past. Within the span of 10 months, Gukesh went on to rewrite historical past once more, by prevailing over Ding Liren in a 14-game encounter in Singapore.
“Chess is in an amazing place!” declared chess legend Susan Polgar after Gukesh’s win over Ding on the world championship.
(Left to proper) Indian Chess masters Gukesh, Viswanathan Anand, R. Praggnandhhaa,
on the draw of males’s Tata Metal Chess India match in Kolkata on September 04, 2023. (Categorical photograph by Partha Paul)
Hikaru Nakamura had defined why, as a impartial with no horse within the World Championship race, he was cheering on Gukesh to win.
“Once I take a look at chess historical past, I can’t actually see any upside to a Ding Liren victory, whereas, actually in India, chess may be very scorching proper now. So if Gukesh wins, it would change into greater. So, I’m really undoubtedly rooting for Gukesh to win the match in opposition to Ding. However whether or not it’s him or Arjun, all of them are enjoying nice chess proper now, and the longer term is extraordinarily brilliant in India,” Nakamura had informed The Indian Categorical in October, a month earlier than the World Championship.
If Gukesh has change into the poster boy for this era of Indians by his victory in Singapore, the era as a complete had its coming-of-age second in Budapest once they swept most medals on provide at an occasion the place there are over 180 nations collaborating. The open crew claimed the gold after going undefeated on the Olympiad. Gukesh and Arjun each had particular person golds as effectively. To make issues even higher, the ladies’s crew claimed the crew gold too with Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal claiming particular person golds on their boards.
Like Gukesh, Arjun has additionally chosen 2024 as his breakout 12 months. He used the heartbreak of not qualifying for the Candidates as gasoline to change into solely the fifteenth participant in historical past to the touch the 2800 ranking mark. It’s a symbolic achievement that charges excessive on many elite grandmasters’ objectives. Arjun, although, merely shrugged after attending to Mount 2800.
The 12 months additionally noticed Divya Deshmukh win the women title on the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship in Gandhinagar to ship a message that the nation might quickly have its fourth lady changing into a grandmaster. Divya was the youngest member of the Indian ladies’s crew on the Chess Olympiad and delivered wins even when extra established gamers like Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali didn’t have their finest tournaments.
As chess legend Garry Kasparov, the person who coined the phrase ‘Indian earthquake in chess’ famous earlier this week after Gukesh grew to become the youngest world champion in historical past on the age of 18: “Gukesh’s victory caps an outstanding 12 months for India. Mixed with their Olympiad dominance, chess has returned to its cradle and the period of ‘Vishy’s youngsters’ is really upon us!”
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