Chess success

OUR cricket-crazy nation is going gaga over a sport that usually doesn’t grab many eyeballs. That’s because the Indian men’s and women’s teams have touched the stars by winning the gold in the 45th Chess Olympiad in Hungary. With this magnificent achievement, India has joined a select club of nations, which includes China as well as the erstwhile Soviet Union — both clinched the golden double in the same edition of the Olympiad. It is befitting that Viswanathan Anand, the colossus of Indian chess with five World Championship titles, was present to watch these young players assert their dominance in the global arena.

The men’s team comprised World Championship challenger D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna. Barring Harikrishna, none of them was even born when Anand became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988. Gukesh is just 18 years old, while Erigaisi is 21. Both are among the top 10 players in the world. At 54, Anand is a ‘semi-retired’ player who is still good enough to be ranked World No. 11. What’s more, he has been a huge source of inspiration for Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa. On the eve of the Olympiad, he said: ‘If I had to roll the dice, these are good teams to roll them with.’

The team triumph will surely boost Gukesh’s confidence for his World Chess Championship summit clash with reigning world champion Ding Liren in Singapore later this year. The women’s team — Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev — deserves kudos for emerging victorious despite the absence of star performer Koneru Humpy. These are good days for Indian chess, which is no longer a one-man/one-woman show. The Global Chess League, whose second season will begin in London early next month, will provide another big opportunity to these players to sharpen their skills and further popularise the sport in India.