Bengaluru: It was two years ago, in the Indian coastal temple town of Mamallapuram, that a 16-year-old D Gukesh got the world to take his promise seriously. He stunned the then world No.2 Fabiano Caruana to post a flawless 8/8 (eight wins from eight rounds) run at the Olympiad and took home an individual gold medal for his efforts.
Between the Chennai Olympiad and the one in Budapest that starts this week, Indian chess has seen significant churn and growth. R Praggnanandhaa became the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to make a World Cup final, three Indians featured in the Candidates for the first time, Arjun Erigaisi is now the highest-ranked player from the country at world No.4 and Gukesh, ranked world No.7, is the youngest challenger for the World Championship title. India today has four players in the top 12 (three of them aged 21 or below) and four women in the top 15 for the first time. It’s been quite the leap.
Over 190 countries will feature in the Chess Olympiad – a team event which takes place once in two years – that gets underway in the Hungarian capital. The opening ceremony on Tuesday will be followed by the first round on Wednesday. The Olympiad sees players from the same country, typically rivals, come together as a team. “It’s the strongest Indian team ever,” says Open section captain Srinath Narayanan, talking of the team seeded second, behind USA.
“And this is a bunch of young players who continue to only get stronger. We are very optimistic about our chances, of course.”
In the Chennai Olympiad, by virtue of being hosts, India was allowed to field two teams each in the open and women’s sections. The ‘B’ team – comprising Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and B Adhiban – won bronze over their higher-rated countrymen of the ‘A’ team in the Open section. India’s first Olympiad medal (also a bronze) since 2014. “The sense of team doesn’t come naturally in chess because you’re playing for yourself most of the time. I guess at some level everyone in the current side really wants to win. It’s a nice, rare feeling perhaps of having both super strong and highly-motivated players.”
Srinath, who captained the India ‘A’ side last time, recalls it being ‘intense’. “I felt that some of the senior players in the team perhaps felt a bit of pressure because players in the other Indian team were just growing at an astonishing pace. I expect it to be a more energetic and casual group this time around.”
“Earlier, when we played against teams like Armenia or Russia, we tended to be the underdogs. We had superb team spirit but performance-wise we weren’t there. That has changed. We’ve transformed from being underdogs to being the favourites against almost every team, except maybe the USA. One standout factor is that ours continues to be a super young team despite having players of such incredible strength. In the Olympiad this can be an advantage because these players are still fresh from playing in Open tournaments. They still have the flexibility and haven’t quite forgotten what it is like to play against much lower rated opponents.”
Apart from top seeds USA, China and defending champions Uzbekistan will be arriving with spades of ambition. “A gold would be terrific,” says Narayanan. “A medal of any colour would be creditable, quite frankly. Learning from teams like Russia who had similarly strong teams, might help. If everyone is in an optimal state of mind, the medal will take care of itself. The biggest potential enemy would be the internal pressures that we create ourselves through expectations.”
In the women’s section, India will be without their highest-ranked player Koneru Humpy, who has chosen to sit this Olympiad out rather than play back-to-back tournaments. But the team will still hold ample promise with the likes of Vaishali, who recently broke into the top 10, and a seasoned Olympiad warhorse like Harika Dronavalli, in the mix. Seeded second, India will have to contend with the likes of Georgia and Poland. China is without all of its top names, but could still be unpredictable while Ukraine will be missing the services of the Muzychuk sisters, Anna and Maria.
“The enormity of an Olympiad is quite unique. Players from close to 200 countries in a single playing venue. You rarely get to see something like that in chess,” says Narayanan, “As captain I spend most of my time in the playing hall. There’s no internet or screen to distract me and I get to watch some of the world’s best players from a close proximity. There’s not a whole lot more you can ask for as a chess fan.”
