CHESS OLYMPIAD, 2022 - Prospects of chess in India and Eulogy to Vishy Anand

Recently, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has inaugurated the torch relay of upcoming Chess Olympiad, 2022. The event will be in Mahabalipuram, Chennai from 20th July, 2022.

The major highlight of the event was, journey of Chaturanga in ancient India to Shartranj in Persia to Chess in European Nations. It was also decided that every torch relay from next Olympiad onwards will start from its birthplace India.

Chess Olympiad is seen as an event which will multiply the growth of the game in India. The torch relay event had whole stadium brimmed with viewers. Keynote speakers like PM Modi, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich emphasised on India as the birthplace of Chess where it was called “Chaturanga”.

More than 2000 players from 190 Countries will participate in the Olympiad making it the biggest sporting event in terms of participation ever conducted by India.

Many youngsters across India will also be in Mahabalipuram to get the feel of the Olympiad and valuable tips from grandmasters.

The torch was carried by none other than Viswanathan Anand (Vishy). Vishy has literally been the torchbearer of Indian Chess for past 3.5 decades. From being the first Grand Master of Indian to being Five time world champion Vishy has had a marvelous journey.

He was also crowned World rapid and blitz champion many a times. He also has distinction of first person to be awarded with “Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna” and first sportsperson to get “Padma Vibhushan”.

From playing Mikhail Tal (b.1936, former World Champion) to Alireza Firouza (b.2004, World No. 3) his journey warrants a biopic (which is to be directed by Anand L Rai).

At 52, he is a semi-active player and is still in Top 10 FIDE Rankings where the average age of players is around 26.   

Chess has gained massive popularity during lockdown. The measure of popularity can be assessed from the fact that there is a Netflix Documentary on “Popularity of chess during lockdown”.

Netflix blockbuster “Queen's Gambit, 2021” put icing on the cake .The story is of a young girl who aspires to become the world champion by defeating Russians.

Samay Raina, a professional comedian from Jammu, successfully broke the stereotype of Chess as “merely an intellectual game”. He invited many comedians on a regular basis like Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vaibhav Sethia, Anirban das Gupta. He organized “Comedians on Board” where almost all the top comedians participated in the event. The viewership peaked as high as 75k watching on YouTube.

Many non-chess players viewed their streams and learned the nuances of the game to understand the recreation going on with the game.

IM Sagar Shah has uploaded 6200+ videos available on his YouTube channel “Chessbase India”. He has been consistently uploading videos for the past few years.

Thanks to many entertaining collaborations of Sagar Shah and Samay Raina which attracted a wider audience towards chess. The blend of comedy with chess was a novelty and a successful experiment.

During Lockdown, many Bollywood celebrities like Amir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Arijit Singh, Riteish Deshmukh and others did a charity stream with chess.com where they played a simul with Vishy Anand.

A decade back it was very difficult for someone in India to professionally pursue the sports given the exorbitant fee of coaching and other training materials. But in present time with a single click you can watch live matches of World Champion “Magnus Carlsen” and check the commentary by experts.

India currently boasts of having 74 Grand Masters in India. The number is third highest in the world after Russia and USA. India is rapidly adding Grand Masters in its arsenal. The credit goes to Vishy’s tremendous success, free accessibility of training materials and regular tournaments across the country by AICF.

Recently, 16 year old GM from Chennai “R.Praggnanandhaa” defeated World Champion Magnus Carlsen twice and became the youngest in the world to do so. The feat was even appreciated by PM Modi and Sachin Tendulkar.

The day is not far when India will be called as “Superpower of Chess”. With young players marking their feat India will soon surpass US and Russia.

With the upcoming Chess Olympiad and spectacular preparations of the event by AICF and Tamil Nadu government, many will consider the sport to pursue it professionally.

PS – This is the “First Article” on our media platform. The first video we uploaded on YouTube was also of “Chess Olympiad”. Hope this is an augury of our winsome prospects.