Board of Champions

Viswanathan Anand, 54: The First Master

He REMAINS UNDOUBTEDLY the herald of India’s chess revolution. From 1987 onwards, when Viswanathan Anand won the FIDE World Junior Championship, he singlehandedly caught the imagination of the nation in a sport only a fraction of a fraction was interested in. He achieved it through sheer talent and drive, without even formal coaching in the beginning. He was India’s first grandmaster but what propelled him into a sport phenomenon was becoming the world chess champion, the title that D Gukesh is now contesting for. Throughout the 1990s, he vied for the top spot and missed it. In 2000, he even won it but because of the dissensions in the chess world and associations, many did not recognise it. It was only in 2007, after defeating Vladmir Kramnik that no one could say he was not the world champion. He continued to hold the title till 2013.Many of today’s young chess stars have trained in the chess academy he founded. Anand is still an active player and ranked 12th in the world, and 3rd in India. He has done more than any other Indian can possibly ever in nurturing chess in the country into a world-beating sport.

R Praggnanandhaa,19: The Prodigy

GUKESH D MIGHT be contesting for the World Championship but if there is anyone after Viswanathan Anand more well-known to the general public, then it is R Praggnanandhaa, or Pragg as the chess world affectionately calls him. He is only 19 and has been a prodigy in the game from his early childhood.He won the under-8 World Youth Championship in 2013 and the under-10 two years later. When he became international master in 2016, Pragg was only 10 years old and the youngest in the world to achieve that milestone.Two years later when he became grandmaster, he was the second youngest at the time. Last year, he reached the finals of the Chess World Cup (not to be confused with the World Championship) where he lost to Magnus Carlsen, thought by many to be the greatest chess player of all times. But much of the admiration for Pragg has been in how he has repeatedly defeated Carlsen in different time formats. He was expected to be a potential World Champion and had been part of the 2024 Candidates Tournament thatGukesh eventually won. With time on his side, it is eminently conceivable that he would also reach the highest point in the game in future.

Koneru Humpy, 37: The Pathbreaker

WHAT VISWANATHAN ANAND is to men’s chess, Koneru Humpy is to the women’s category in India. At37, most would put her out of contention to be a world champion, but then how do you account for her still being the highest-ranked women’s chess player of India? And this after becoming a grandmaster 22 years ago, in 2002, the first Indian woman to do so. Even now there are only two other grandmasters besides her. Judit Polgár is considered the greatest woman’s chess player ever but, when Humpy became grandmaster at the age of 15, she beat Polgár’s record of the youngest to achieve that milestone. When she crossed a rating of 2600, it was a mark only Polgár had crossed earlier for a woman. The high point of Humpy’s career was when she became a contender for the World Championship against the reigning Chinese world champion Hou Yifan. This year, when the Candidates Tournament happened, Humpy was placed just behind at Runners’ Up missing by a whisker to once again contest for the crown. Her reign has been for over two decades and part of it also involved balancing motherhood against the demands of a full-time chess player. It is a compelling story of longevity and hard work in an arena often ignored by the sports world.

Arjun Erigaisi, 21: The Comeback King

WHEN THE CANDIDATES Tournament happened early this year, there were three Indians and the name that did not figure was Arjun Erigaisi. He had not had a good run in 2023 and that had also led to him not getting through for a shot at the top. But what a rise it has been for him since then. He is now ranked first among Indian chess players and fourth in the world. His rating is 2799, but in between he crossed over 2800, something of a holy grail for chess players. Only Viswanathan Anand had ever done it before for an Indian. Erigaisi’s rating in fact jumped 70 points over the course of this year, which is astonishing at that level. What changed for him? After not getting into the Candidates, he made one simple change to his approach: to stop caring about results. He decided to just give his best and that little psychological tweak of not being invested in ratings or victories accelerated his performance. He became willing to not play safe anymore. Even though Gukesh qualified to be the contender, Erigaisi has a huge record of wins versus losses against him. It is interesting to imagine what could have happened ifErigaisi had peaked a little earlier. Would he be playing against Ding Liren now considering current form? At just 21 years of age, he still has a long runway left for that ambition.

Vidit Gujrathi, 30: The Late Bloomer

AT THE UPPER end of the age scale, there is Viswanathan Anand at 54. At the lower end are the young prodigies like Gukesh, Pragg and Ergaisi. In the middle is Vidit Gujrathi at the age of 30. That is also one reason for why his career took its time to peak. He became a grandmaster only at 18, which in the world of high-level chess players is late. But this was also because Indian chess was yet to receive the kind of attention or resources it gets today. Gujrathi could have become a grandmaster early but did not have the financial means to go abroad and play the events required for it. A rating above 2700, that elite grandmasters achieve, came to him in his early-20s. This year, he was among the three Indians players at the Candidates tournament. Gujrathi has made India proud in other ways. The Chess Olympiad is when teams of countries play against each other. In 2020, India won it for the first time ever with him as the captain. This year, he was part of the team that won it again. He is termed as a late bloomer in chess but his achievements are just as seminal in the shaping of this new era in Indian chess.

Arjun ErigaisiChess championshipR PraggnanandhaasportsViswanathan Anand