CHENNAI: It’s that time of December. The days are shorter and the weather several degrees cooler as the winter begins to set all over the country. That means the end of the year is round the corner and the often thankless exercise of writing about the best Indian chess moments is here.
In 2024, a lot of Indian athletes and teams excelled on the world stage. Neeraj Chopra went to a place so rarefied the air he breathes can only be found on Everest. The men’s hockey team jumped past significant obstacles to return from Paris with another fine bronze. Vinesh Phogat beat the wrestler who never loses in Paris en route to a frankly thrilling ride in Paris before the heart-ache a few hours later. At long last, the men’s cricket team married tenacity and skills to end a 11-year ICC title drought. Staying in cricket, Jasprit Bumrah had the sort of year that should have needed a separate subscription package to watch it. Seeing him was like being in the presence of divinity, ethereal.
Frankly, though, all those accomplishments have been left in the shade thanks to the miracle workers across 64 squares. 2024, in time, will be remembered as the year when India’s elite chess players ascended a higher plane. There were several warning shots in 2022 and 2023 but they are no longer the future. The future is here and it promises to be filled with trinkets and gongs of all shapes and sizes.
Just before the curtains came down on 2023, D Gukesh belatedly advanced to the Candidates. With the curtains just about to close on this year, Koneru Humpy, whose experience alone is greater than Gukesh’s age, was crowned as the women’s world rapid champion in New York.
In the interim, Indian chess only had peaks. From Chennai to Singapore and Budapest to Toronto, the only constant was history rewritten multiple times across the year. Arjun Erigaisi breached 2800. Gukesh became world champion. Both teams won barely believable gold at the Olympiad in Budapest in September.
Aravindh Chithambaram, one of the OG wunderkinds, triumphed at the Chennai Grand Masters event in November… India’s annus mirabilis in chess just kept on giving.
To paraphrase IM Venkat Saravanan, there has indeed never been a time like this in Indian chess. “What has happened in India in the last 10 years has been amazing,” he says. “There has definitely not been a time like this.”
There’s a reason why the likes of Saravanan feel this way. It’s not just because of the medals and the gongs, they of course help. But there’s something greater at play. India’s depth. Forget the fact that India’s ceiling right now is sky high. Their floor is also so high it might well be the ceiling of some of the bigger chess nations.
