New chapter in indian chess history could unfold this year

India’s Rameshbabu Vaishali (right) ponders her next move against Anna Ushenina of Ukraine during their blitz chess match of the Tata Steel chess tournament in Kolkata on December 4, 2022. Pic/Getty Images

Identifying a chess prodigy at the beginning of every new year has never needed much thought, but the year 2024 will open a glorious new chapter in the history of Indian chess. For the first time, the elite eight-player Candidate tournament (the winner will be the Challenger for the World Chess champion) will feature three Indians, a whopping share.

If Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa pummelled his way to the top two of the World Cup, then Vidit Gujrathi literally rose like the proverbial phoenix to clinch the FIDE Grand Swiss in 2023. Incidentally, these two major elite tournaments offer direct qualification slots for the Candidates, scheduled in April at Toronto.

Dommaraju Gukesh who officially overtook Viswanathan Anand as the highest rated Indian for a short while in 2023, picked up the third qualification spot on the last day of the year via the FIDE circuit (a series of elite FIDE events) which concluded with the World Blitz. His closest contenders were Anish Giri of the Netherlands and fellow Indian Arjun Erigaisi.

Vidit Gujrathi is in for more accolades this year. Pic/Mid-day archives

Quite clearly, 20-year-old Arjun, 18-year-old Pragg and 17-year-old Gukesh are the future faces of not just Indian chess while 29-year-old Vidit dazzled in the last half of the year to eke out career-best performances, shrugging off a few indifferent performances in the last couple of years.

The most amazing part is the fact that all these players have taken a different route for the same destination, an indication of the rising Indian chess strength at what one hopes to be formidable levels. An obvious indicator that there is still more untapped potential is the fact that all of them have been punching heavily above their rating strength.

All these players along with Anand are rated in the Top 30 and will further improve their placing after the new rating list is released. The Women's Candidates will also have an Indian flavour as Vaishali Rameshbabu (Pragg's sibling) also won the Women's FIDE Grand Swiss and in all probability old warhorse Koneru Humpy may clinch a spot as the highest rated player.

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Five-time world champion Anand, the sole Indian so far at the Candidates is delighted to see Indians crowding and converging so close to the title and flatly refused to single out anyone as a favourite "Quite clearly, the Candidates will be the tournament to watch out for rather than saying which player I want to watch for. It will define the player of 2024," he said.