There was loads of seismic exercise in chess over the previous couple of years. However the tremors emanating from the epicentre — India — have actually 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 check 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 reduce by way of 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 reduce within the eight-man subject within the open class whereas two girls — Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu — had 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 battle.
Gukesh navigated by way of 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 come back 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 have 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 definitely the strongest. And probably the most harmful.”
The upside to India’s chess dominance
Profitable 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 ideal place!” declared chess legend Susan Polgar after Gukesh’s win over Ding on the world championship.
on the draw of males’s Tata Metal Chess India match in Kolkata on September 04, 2023. (Categorical picture 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 have a look at chess historical past, I can’t actually see any upside to a Ding Liren victory, whereas, definitely in India, chess may be very sizzling proper now. So if Gukesh wins, it’ll grow to be larger. So, I’m really positively rooting for Gukesh to win the match towards Ding. However whether or not it’s him or Arjun, all of them are taking part in nice chess proper now, and the longer term is extraordinarily vibrant in India,” Nakamura had informed The Indian Categorical in October, a month earlier than the World Championship.
If Gukesh has grow to be 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 supply 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 nicely. 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 gas to grow to be 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’ targets. 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 girl turning into a grandmaster. Divya was the youngest member of the Indian girls’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 exceptional 12 months for India. Mixed with their Olympiad dominance, chess has returned to its cradle and the period of ‘Vishy’s kids’ is actually upon us!”
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