The headline seems incredibly misleading. Why would India, the birthplace of Chess, need to reclaim the sport?
Before I answer, I want to talk about Nagalakshmi, a housewife from Chennai who finds herself at the SYMA Sports and Conference Centre in Budapest, Hungary. Dressed in a modest sari, wearing a bindi on her forehead staring shyly as people kept bustling by her. She seemed like any normal woman from India. Nobody would think there was anything special about her.
Little did they know that Nagalakshmi was the mother of two chess grandmasters who made history as India won the gold in both the Open and Women events at the 45th Chess Olympiad for the first time. Nagalakshmi happens to be the proud mother of Vaishali and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, both of whom played a huge role in their respective teams’ victories.
Nagalakshmi, who is the source of strength and support for these two incredible siblings might also have played a part in India reclaiming chess.
The earliest recorded history of chess is in the game of chaturanga in seventh-century India (although it could be older). The modern rules of the game were standardized and accepted in Europe in the 19th century.
The game has traditionally been dominated by Russians and Eastern Europeans and played a huge role in the cold war rivalry between USA and USSR. Legends like Karpov and Kasparov have defined the game.
Yet, there seems to be a lack of representation of Indians in this exalted list…that is before Vishwanath Anand broke the glass ceiling to become the first grandmaster from India in 1988. A true gentleman obsessed with the sport, Vishy defined the Indian chess dream. While he was world champion, his greatest achievement lies in his role as mentor and inspiration for the new generation of champions who have taken the nation by storm.
The team consisting of Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna won the gold medal in the Open event with a total of 21 match points, having gone unbeaten. Gukesh had the highest rating performance of 3056 while Arjun had the highest individual score.
The women’s team which had won bronze in 2022, consisting of Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev won the gold medal with 19 match points. Theirs was a spirited performance with the team only recording one loss and one draw, beating out a tough group of opponents to edge out Kazakhstan.
In doing so, chess has suddenly become the next cool thing in India. And the best part is that is not a time or resource intensive sport and anyone with the talent can pick it up.
Despite India hosting multiple tournaments in the country and being the birthplace, why do we not produce grandmasters with impunity? It all comes down to culture.
Popular grandmaster and content creator Hikaru Nakamura recently tweeted about how Vishwanath Anand came from a country with no chess culture and inspired generations to come.
This caused a lot of Indians to get outraged. “We invented chess,” some reminded. Others just abused. But Hikaru had just stated facts.
Chess culture implies people playing chess as a hobby, playing it in public. The way cricket is played in India.
Most major cities have chess boards setup in parks and public places for people to gather and play. It is a social event which inspires people to take up the sport as an intellectual endeavor. Our cities largely lack this culture.
And yet we are on our way to reclaiming this culture. The 44th Olympiad conducted in Chennai was the first such event to take place in India. This played a huge role in giving our players a platform to showcase their talent. Chances are that Gukesh, Prag, Divya, and Vantika wouldn’t have played in 2022 Olympiad if it was not in Chennai. The medal won, the experience gained, and the opportunities that came because of it…maybe there is a case to be made for hosting big events eh [Looking at you Amdavad ;)].
The waves of colonization across the last 800 years have broken the back of India. Various aspects of our culture like cleanliness, excellence, and civic responsibility have been lost over generations. The reclamation of chess gives me hope that we can reclaim the others as well.
But for now, I salute Nagalakshmi and all those wonderful parents who sacrificed so much, dreaming to see their children achieve greatness. They have unknowingly played a role in setting a chess culture.
