Founder of the Indian chess revolution: These are pretty good teams to roll the dice with if you had to. Viswanathan Anand was certain that India would advance to the Chess Olympiad and be very close to winning gold this time.
And to the great satisfaction of the Grandmaster, who has been instrumental in molding some of the most talented young players in Indian chess today, the nation won gold in both the men’s and women’s divisions at the 45th Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.
D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and P Harikrishna, who were challenging for the World Championship, dominated the tournament to win the gold in the open segment, finishing ahead of the top-seeded teams from the USA and Uzbekistan.
Next, to complete an Indian sweep, Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev won the top honors in the women’s event, ahead of Kazakhstan and the USA.
Anand, the game’s first superstar, was a suitable fit for such a historic occasion for the nation.
In the last Olympiad, which took place in Chennai, the home state of both teams, bronze medals had been won. Although Anand was aware that they “were smelling the gold” at the moment, he let it slide in the last moments.
The 54-year-old five-time world champion, however, expressed confidence in both teams’ abilities to compete in Budapest in an interview with PTI prior to the Olympiad, and he considered it icing on the cake that he was present to see history being made by them in the Hungarian city.
He’d replied, “You know, these are good teams to roll them with if I had to roll the dice.”
The bespectacled chess maestro established the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) in Chennai four years ago, where Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi, and Vaishali received their training.
18-year-old Gukesh and 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa have frequently said that “Vishy sir” is the reason they are where they are.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that he was referred to as the “father of Indian chess boom” by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). This came after Gukesh became the youngest contender for the world title in April after winning the Candidates, to which the legendary Garry Kasparov paid homage to his brilliance by declaring that the “children of Vishy Anand are on the loose!”
Founder of the Indian chess revolution:
Anand acknowledges that his notion of a chess academy, which was influenced by institutions he had seen in the Soviet Union more than three decades ago, did have some influence, but he prefers to share the credit with the players’ parents and early instructors.
“To help was the most simple goal. Indians were often placing in the top 200, but they weren’t quite able to crack the top 100. The thought was, can we aid the young people who are the most gifted and see if we can help them overcome that obstacle? We seem to have succeeded thus far,” he had stated prior to the Olympiad.
It goes without saying that there are a ton of people involved. We attempt to blend in and make sure that we can get along with not just WACA but also their parents and coaches. However, I believe that we undoubtedly fulfilled our role.” During the Olympiad, Anand acknowledged to FIDE that he was taken aback by how quickly individuals such as Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa had risen to prominence.
“I picked up every child who had attained Grandmaster status before to turning fourteen. Sincerely, the goal was to help them advance from being elite juniors to being world champions,” he remarked.
“Pragnanandhaa was my original gang; Gukesh and Arjun joined a little later. Vaishali was with the girls. Did I anticipate it moving that quickly? Not really. Were I to have predicted this outcome? Indeed. But this is incredible in some way,” he continued.
This is above my expectations, yet it’s also not a coincidence. Given the difficulties WACA had before taking off, the kind, semi-retired player—who still wins events for fun—is happy with his accomplishments as a mentor. The most recent being the Leon Masters in Spain a few months ago.
Anand is happy to have been there since he knew he had a group of really unique kids entrusting him with their future.
“For India, this seems to be a beautiful time. As I mentioned earlier, you know that you’ll get a certain number of results from these players, but they often surpassed (expectations). He smiled broadly and remarked, “It’s very nice to have it all at the same time.”
