Is India the new talent-churning machine in chess?

Viswanathan Anand remained to be the lone flagbearer of Indian chess for a long time taking the world by storm with his exploits But things seem to have changed in the last decade or so with numerous talented players emerging on the Indian chess scene making the country a formidable force in the worldWith the country producing Grandmasters almost on demand Anand went so far as to say that the current lot happens to be the golden generation in Indian chessFour Indian players R Praggnanandhaa Arjun Erigaisi D Gukesh and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi reached the quarterfinal of the FIDE World Cup at Baku in a first for the country in a sport dominated for long by erstwhile Soviet Union and later Russia at various pointsPraggnanandhaa shone through bright reaching the final of the World Cup the first Indian after Anand to do so and also secured a place in the Candidates Tournament next year to determine the challenger to current world champion Ding Liren He defeated the world No2 and No3 Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana respectively during the run to the finalAlso Read India a chess super powerThe teenaged trio of Praggnanandhaa 18 Gukesh 17 and Erigaisi 19 are trailblazers so to speak While Praggnanandhaas accomplishments are well documented Gukesh has gone from strength to strength in the last year and Erigiasis stock has risen tooPraggnanandhaa who has become the thirdyoungest player after the legendary Bobby Fischer of the US and Norways Magnus Carlsen to qualify for the Candidates tournament has been tipped for greatness ever since he emerged on the sceneBy qualifying for the Candidates he has also put himself in line to be able to become the challenger for the world crownGukesh has been on a brilliant run since his superb performance in the Chess Olympiad in Chennai last year where he almost won the gold for his team He has since raised his level of play several notches and surpassed fivetime world champion Anand in the live ratings to become the countrys No1 playerAnand had said he was amazed by the fact that most of the current lot possesses a 2700plus Elo rating especially below 20 years of age and termed it specialIm throwing in the title early but they are a golden generation They are all in the 2700plus group Elo rating And theyre all under 20 That just does not happen its really something special he addedHe also felt that these players would be spending the next 10 years at the top of the sportAnand has also been mentoring the likes of Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh in the past year and the results are there to seeAccording to Grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi Praggnanandhaa Gukesh Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin are the ones to watch out for in futureOur future generation is in safe hands and we can safely make a bet that one of these players will surely become world champion at some point of time he said referring to Praggnanandhaa Gukesh and the othersNoting that he was astounded with their growth he said we couldnt have asked for a better thing to happen to Indian chess Superquick rise and that too an army of youngsters have come up we have become like the old Soviet Union talentchurning machineWorld No1 Carlsen who dashed the hopes of Praggnanandhaa in the World Cup final praised the Indian teenager and his compatriot Gukesh for their talent and skills He has even rated Gukesh as one of the strongest Classical format players currentlyThis is no ordinary praise coming from one of the greatest players in the history of the gameThings have moved rather quickly for Indian chess recently with Gukesh going past Anand and Praggnanandhaas achievements in the World Cup and also crossing the 2700 ELO mark apart from the impressive results for Erigaisi and the othersMany like Anand believe that the younger Indian players are set to dominate the sport in the years to come and their performance in Baku could be the harbinger of good times for chess in the countryWith agency inputs