How India is the pre-eminent Contributor to Chess

“It Ain’t About How Hard You Hit, It’s About How Hard You Can Get Hit And Keep Moving Forward.”

-Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa

# Introduction -

Hi Chessfans,

I welcome you to my blog space, where we discuss the fundamental theories of chess including, Openings, Middle games and End games. We also share new updates and chess news with an open discussion on several topics, including hot topics currently in the limelight. Today we will witness the information on how INDIA (5 Ranked in men and 4 In women) has a remarkable footprint on our beloved game CHESS.

# Topic for today -

Today we will understand how INDIA is changing the course of chess winds in the world and creating its dominance with also an informative context on chess growth from India earlier to now, including players who made chess what it is now.

# Why is it IMPORTANT -

Many people, including GM Garry Kasparov, remarked," Future chess will be Indian generation." So we need to understand why one of the best chess players believes it so and how the INDIAN government and organizations are providing help to these youngsters.

# The Rise Of The Young Generation- 

The young generation of India came into the limelight after the Indian trio defeated the World champion, GM Magnus Carlsen. GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa set down a carpet for the new young generation by defeating magnus not once but thrice in six months. Moving forward, GM Dommaraju Gukesh and GM Arjun Erigaisi also defeated Magnus. For a better understanding, we need to look at this youngster of INDIA in short.

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa -

• Won the World Youth Chess Championship in 2013
• Became the youngest International Master in 2016
• Became second-youngest Grandmaster
• Won the Xtracon Chess Open in Denmark in 2019
• Third Indian player to beat World Champion Magnus Carlsen

Arjun Erigaisi -

• A chess prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 13 days, making him the 32nd youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster.
• He won the 2022 Indian National Championship.
• In January 2022, Arjun won Tata Steel Chess 2022 Challengers
• In March 2022, he was crowned the Indian National Champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022 with a score of 8.5/11.
• In December 2022, Arjun won Tata Steel Chess India 2022 Blitz with 12.5/18, which was his third victory in Tata Steel events to date.
• In the seventh round of Aimchess Rapid– An online rapid tournament, Erigaisi beat the Norwegian for the first time in his burgeoning career in 54 moves.

Gukesh D

• He is the third-youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March 2019.
• On 16 October 2022, at the age of 16, he became the youngest player ever to defeat then-world champion Magnus Carlsen.
• Gukesh won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015, and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under-12 category.
• He also won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships in the U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz and the U-12 individual classical formats.
• He became the second-youngest 'Grandmaster' in history on 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 Months, and 17 Days.
• In August 2022, he began the 44th Chess Olympiad with a perfect score of 8/8, helping India-2 defeat the No. 1 ranked U.S. in the 8th match.

Nihal Sarin

• Nihal was the 2013 National Under-9 Champion in Chennai, the 2014 National Under-11 Bronze Medalist at Puri, and the National Under-11 Silver Medalist in 2015 in Pondicherry.
• Nihal won the gold medal in the World Blitz Championship in the Under-10 category in Al-Ain in 2013.
• Nihal achieved his peak rating of 2677 in September 2022 and peak ranking of world No. 60 in March 2023
• Nihal occasionally puts on simultaneous demonstrations to spread chess among amateur players. He played 112 opponents of all ages when he was ten years old at Thodupuzha, Kerala, and won every game.
• At the age of 14 years, one month, and one day, the Indian prodigy Nihal Sarin became the 12th-youngest 'Grandmaster' in chess history.

Vidit Gujrathi

• Vidit Gujrathi is an Indian super GM
• He has won the under-14 world championship, the 2018 Tata Steel Challengers, and the 2019 Biel tournament.
• He stands at 25 in the world ranking and 3 in the Indian ranking
• He is the youngest Indian to cross 2700 Elo
• He is the ambassador for the All India Chess Federation for Blind
• He has reached this level without a permanent sponsor
• After vishy anand and before the emergence of young prodigies Vidit was the prime motivation for many youngsters

# The contribution of the Government towards Indian chess

Sports like cricket, which is now well established, have no shortage of funds, Primarily because the corporates find it lucrative to invest in it. But for chess, which is a growing sport in India, the big corporate houses are still making up their mind about whether it is a wise decision to invest in the sport. All the top authorities in the world, including Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand and others, believe that India will dominate the chess world in the upcoming years. And this sentiment is echoed by the Government of India as well. So, while the corporates still make up their mind, the Government of India has increased its grant from 4 crores to 5.5 crores towards Indian chess(2019), and these funds are being utilized for the development of our youngsters and top players.
Recently concluded Abu Dhabi Masters(2019), which was an exposure trip funded by the Government of India for 37 of our players - four were able to make their norms.
1- Nandhidhaa P.V., one of the members managed to achieve her final WGM norm and become a WGM!
2 - Mahalakshmi M. not only finished as the best woman player of the tournament, but she also made an IM norm
3 - Nitish Belurkar achieved his IM norm
4 - Aronyak Ghosh achieved his maiden IM norm
Three IM Norms and one WGM Norm are great results of a single event. There are also 'Training camps for Juniors and Sub Juniors' held by the government.
Training camps for Juniors and Sub Juniors
The top 24 juniors (12 in boys and 12 in girls) and top 24 sub-juniors (12 in boys and 12 in girls) are to be exposed to world-class chess training to ensure that they improve and become stronger chess players. To this effect, coaches like Jacob Aagaard, R.B. Ramesh( Pragg coach ), Pravin Thipsay, Dejan Bojkov and Vishal Sareen have been roped in for this job.
All of the above camps are sponsored by the Government of India. Apart from them, the other initiatives which are sponsored by the Government of India are:

1. Chess camps for sub-juniors and juniors (mentioned above)
2. Expenses of participation in World Team Championships
3. Expenses of participation in World Youth, World Cadets, and World Juniors
4. Expenses of participation in Asian Youth and Asian Juniors
5. Expenses of participation in Asian Teams and Olympiad
6. From this year onwards participants of the World Cup 2019 will also be sponsored
7. Two exposure trips each year 

AICF

Vision 2020 by AICF -
AICF stands for All India Chess Federation. It is the central administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951 The federation is affiliated with Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the world body for chess. The AICF has produced Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and many other grandmasters. The organisation is also in charge of managing women's chess in India.

Vision -

1. FIDE Trainer Seminar (10 States):- 40 participants in each seminar
   
2. FIDE Arbiter Seminar (10 States):- 30 participants in each seminar.
   
3. Coaching Camp under Foreign Coach for talented junior players
   
4. Girls Coaching Camp at 15 States under ‘Smart Girl Project’.
   
5. FIDE Rated Chess Tournament exclusively for Girl players under the Smart Girl project.
   
6. FIDE Rated Chess Tournament under Chess for Everyone Project.
   
7. Two women Round Robin events for securing International Norms by our female players.
   
8.  Prize Money for National Senior and National Women Championship amounting to Rs. 15,00,000/- & Rs. 10,00,000/- respectively will be catered by AICF.
   
9. School Teachers Training Programme.
   If you want to understand vision in more depth you can follow the below link to chessbase INDIA.

https://chessbase.in/news/Vision-2020-by-AICF

# Chess openings with the Indian name 

Generally, In older chess, pawns used to move two squares to capture centre equity. These were not necessary, but it was a kind of trend. Indian player showed the world the one-step pawn push is also playable, where we give up the centre equity and gain it later by either fianchettoin' the bishops or using pieces.

In openings like KIA, KID, QIA, QID, Nimzo, Bogo, etc All have a single pawn push opening variation as early as move two. These Indian Games / Indian Openings were played exclusively by Indian Chess Master Moheschunder Bannerjee In the 1880s against Sir John Cochrane. When Cochrane came back to British Empire, he popularized this concept of one pawn push instead of two and gave it a general name-“The Indian Game", as it was played by almost all Indian chess masters/players at that time.

This concept prevailed and became especially famous because of the fact that you are not committing the pawns early but rather waiting for your opponent's moves(at least the first 4–5 moves, since pawns can't go backwards) and then flexing your own style of play. These opening variations have found their places in books written by Reti, Lasker, Capablanca etc…and people like Nimzowitch (hence Nimzo-Indian) Bogolijubov(Bogo-Indian) Grunfeld(Grunfeld Indian) etc… have analysed these variations over and over and over to try and develop the best style of play with it. Even Bobby Fischer played KIA(considered to be his favourite opening) whenever he got the chance.

# Chess growth concerning the states

We all are aware of Vishy Anand, but do you know there was someone who had already done a lot of work in chess before vishy? His contribution is so predominant that we can see why Tamil Nadu is the highest chess-producing state in INDIA. His name is Manuel Aaron.

Manuel Aaron  (born 30 December 1935) is the first Indian chess master in the second half of the 20th century. He dominated chess in India from the 1960s to the 1980s and was the national champion of India nine times between 1959 and 1981. He is India's first player to be awarded the International Master title and is one of the key figures in introducing international chess practices to India. He also served as the secretary of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) and Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA).

Vishy Grandmaster title later bought hope of chess growth in INDIA. Becoming a world champion, Vishy paved a major role in chess growth afterwards. Two decades later, the game is thriving. Some 50,000 chess players are officially registered in India. But at least a million people are playing local tournaments all over the country, reckons Bharat Singh Chauhan, the secretary of All India Chess Federation. Among them are Uber and auto-rickshaw drivers, and construction workers who sign up for free entry tournaments and take a shot at getting a World Chess Federation rating. The federation, mainly run by former players, runs 20 national championships, beginning from Under-7, every year with prize money of 20m rupees (£197,000; $264,000). This year, India is hosting 12 international tournaments. During the pandemic when board games could not be held, more than 10,000 players participated in countrywide online championships.

As per 2020,

# The evolution of women's chess in India

Indian women's chess was almost non-existent until the Khadilkar sisters came on stage in the early 1970s. Before that, in 1933, an Indian lady named Fatima Ghulam won the British women's championship.

Just like the Polgar sisters from Hungary changed the world of chess, the Khadilkar sisters from India revolutionized chess in the country. The eldest, 'Vasanti Khadilkar' became 'The first national women's champion' of India in 1974. She was followed by Jayshree in 1975 and then the youngest Rohini in 1976. In 1978 when Rohini was to play in the men's nationals, AICF and male participants created issues with regard to her participation. "A woman cannot play in men's Nationals," was their contention. Nilkanth Khadilkar immediately wrote to Max Euwe, the FIDE President at that time. FIDE resolved the issue, and AICF had to allow Rohini to take part in the men's championship. It was a big breakthrough for women's chess. Chess, which was a male-dominated sport in India, slowly began to see a rise in the participation of women players thanks to the efforts of the Khadilkar family. The eldest daughter S. Vijayalakshmi became the first WGM of the country in 2001. Her younger sister Meenakshi also achieved the WGM title in 2008.

While Viji was trying to become a GM, a young girl from Andhra Pradesh was making waves in the Indian chess circuit. Born in 1987, Koneru Humpy was not only winning all the girl's age group tournaments at the world level, but she was also beating boys! At the under-12 Asian Championships, she won in the open section ahead of all the male participants. Humpy, who was trained by her father Ashok Humpy, had a very simple philosophy - play against strong opposition. As the toughest opponents could be found in open tournaments and not in the girl's section, she always enrolled herself on the bigger challenge. She improved very quickly. At the age of just 15 years, 1 Month and 27 days, Humpy achieved the GM title, surpassing the achievement of Judit Polgar by a few months! Humpy also became the second female player ever to cross 2600 Elo. She reached the finals of the World Championship Match in 2011. After a tough fight, she lost to the Chinese phenom Hou Yifan. 

Today female players like Harika Dronavalli from Andhra Pradesh, R Vaishali from Tamil Nadu, Bhakti Kulkarni from Goa, Vantika Agarwal from Delhi and Tania Sachdev also from Delhi are making India proud.

# Indian Chess in Numbers

As of 2021,
Records / Firsts

• First National Champion: Ramchandra Sapre (1955).
  
• First Indian International Master: Manuel Aaron (1961).
  
• First Indian Grandmaster: Viswanathan Anand (1988).
  
• First Indian Women's Grandmaster: Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (2001).
  
• Youngest Indian Grandmaster: R Praggnanandhaa at the age of 12. (2018)

World Champions

• Viswanathan Anand held the FIDE title from 2000 to 2002, and the unified title from 2007 to 2013.

Highest rated players

The highest-ranked Indian players are:

• Viswanathan Anand is ranked 16th in the world as of November 2021 with a rating of 2751.
  
• Koneru Humpy, ranked 3rd in the world (Women's FIDE ratings) as of November 2021 with a rating of 2586.
  
• Nihal Sarin, ranked 5th in the world (Junior FIDE ratings) as of December 2021 with a rating of 2662.
  
• Vaishali Rameshbabu, ranked 7th in the world (Girls Junior FIDE ratings) as of December 2021 with a rating of 2401.
  
  

World Top Lists
As of November 2021, the following is the number of Indian chess players in various segments:

• World's Top 100: 6
  
• World's Top 100 Women: 6
  
• World's Top 100 Juniors (age under 20): 20
  
• World's Top 100 Girls (age under 20): 12

Medals won by Indian Chess Team

Player statistics

# THE LEGENDS ( Mythology )

1
Sissa, a Hindu Brahmin (in some legends from the village of Lahur), invents chess for an Indian king for educational purposes. In gratitude, the King asks Sissa how he wants to be rewarded. Sissa wishes to receive an amount of grain which is the sum of one grain on the first square of the chess board and which is then doubled on every following square. This request is now known as the wheat and chessboard problem and forms the basis of various mathematical and philosophical questions.

2
The presiding deity of the temple goes by the name of Sathuranga Vallabhanathar, an expert in chess. Sathurangam is the Tamil name for chess.

Legend has it that, Lord Shiva was called Sathuranga Vallabhanathar after winning the right to marry the daughter of a local king by defeating her in a game of chess. The princess, Rajarajeswari, is believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Parvathi. As his daughter was a genius at chess, the king had declared that he would give the hand of his daughter to anyone who defeated her in the game. As none could defeat her, a worried king prayed to Lord Shiva.

The Lord was said to have appeared in the guise of an old man, surmounted the challenge to defeat Rajarajeswari in the game and later shed his disguise to marry the ‘Goddess’. The temple also houses a rare shrine for Chamundeeswari, who is said to have been sent as a nurse to Rajarajeswari, in Tamil Nadu.

3
 Lord Ravana creates the game of chess to amuse his wife Mandodari. She learns the game and then beats Ravana at it. In contrast, other articles state that it was Mandodari who came up with the game to stop Ravana from fighting wars. Mandodari found it hard to see the state of Ravana in anger, so she prayed to Lord Ganesha for a solution. Ganesha accedes to teach the game to Ravana and asks him to treat it as a virtual mode of battle rather than fighting real wars.

# Conclusion 

The result of India's growth to the top list is due to several factors. We have seen above many schemes provided by the government also these new generation kids have so much talent in them. The path laid by vishy and humpy had all together led to the overall growth of India.

I hope, I was able to put justice to content from my end and wish that today from this blog, you might have known something new. We will meet soon in the next blog until then,

"Let us all grow at chess together."

...THE END...