Indian chess has been on the upward trajectory for the previous two years or so, however nobody can deny that 2024 has been a yr the place the game took a quantum leap. The yr kicked-off with Candidates event in Toronto, Canada the place 5 Indians made the lower within the open discipline regardless of the difficult qualification calls for of the competitors. Solely eight qualify for the Candidates. Whereas D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi made the lower within the eight-man line-up, Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu had been a part of the eight-women class.
Within the males’s class, Gukesh earned his shot at difficult Ding Liren for the world title, overcoming a number of challenges regardless of the presence of veterans like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. He grew to become the youngest-ever to win a shot on the world title.
Nonetheless, this was simply the beginning of what turned out to be an unprecedented yr for Indian chess. With over 180 nations collaborating within the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, the Indian contingent received open staff golds in each males’s and girls’s class.
India additionally received 4 particular person golds to clinch most medals on supply – Gukesh (Board 1) and Arjun Erigaisi (Board 3) in open class, whereas Divya Deshmukh (Board 4) and Vantika Agrawal (Board 4) in girls’s class.
Similar to Gukesh, Erigaisi too peaked in 2024. After lacking out on the candidates, he grew to become solely the second Indian after five-time champion Viswanathan Anand, and sixteenth total, to attain the gold-standard ELO ranking of 2800. He was on 2801 ranking level as per the most recent replace, and in addition achieved his peak rating of no. 3.
Divya Deshmukh too had a momentous 2024 as she received the lady’s title on the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship in Gandhinagar. She can also be knocking on the door to grow to be solely the fourth girl from the nation to earn the title of Grandmaster.
And to prime all that, Gukesh made probably the most of his classical world title shot, beating defending champion Ding Liren to triumph. Gukesh beat Ding within the 14-game tie in Singapore, turning into the youngest-ever world champion. His triumph additionally meant that India received its second world champions after Vishy.
After Gukesh’s triumph, chess legend Garry Kasparov, who was the earlier youngest world champion, brilliantly summed up India’s sudden rise in chess.
“Gukesh’s victory caps an outstanding yr for India. Mixed with their Olympiad dominance, chess has returned to its cradle and the period of ‘Vishy’s youngsters’ is actually upon us!” Kasparov highlighted whereas congratulating Gukesh on breaking his file.
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