India's Viswanathan Anand confident of strong show at Olympiad

India chess ace Viswanathan Anand at an event in the city yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand believes India's chess scene has grown tremendously in the last three decades and the upcoming Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia (September 23 to October 6) will bear testament to this.

"I am proud to have convinced a lot of people to try chess. I was the first Grandmaster in 1987 and today, we have 52. So, that's quite a growth," Anand said on the sidelines of an event to launch Fincare Small Finance Bank's entry in to Mumbai.

Someone like Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu has done it at the age of 12. But the growth of chess in India has been solid and consistent over the last 30 years. It's increasing steadily and compounding.

"I hope the Olympiad will be a demonstration of that, but it has to happen at many levels. I hope the next development will be that some Indian player makes it into the Candidates," he added. The five-time world champion last played in the 2006 Olympiad and refused to play thereafter over reportedly having issues with the zero-tolerance rule which hands a player victory if the opponent fails to make a move in the stipulated time period. Now, back in the team, the Chennai wizard is hopeful of a good show.

"Our last few performances [in the Olympiads] are almost as good as you can get, given the fact there are so many strong teams. The main thing is to go there, do your best and deal with things as they come, rather than say, 'We finished fourth, so now we are going to go for third,' that makes no sense," he added.

India's best performance at the biennial event has been a bronze medal at the 2014 edition. The team ended fourth in 2016. "You can play a very good Olympiad and still finish fifth. In the last two Olympiads, we have done spectacularly well. So, I hope my participation will improve on that," said Anand.

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