Indian chess has been on the upward trajectory for the past two years or so, but no one can deny that 2024 has been a year where the sport took a quantum leap. The year kicked-off with Candidates tournament in Toronto, Canada where five Indians made the cut in the open field despite the tricky qualification demands of the competition. Only eight qualify for the Candidates. While D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi made the cut in the eight-man line-up, Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu were part of the eight-women category.

In the men’s category, Gukesh earned his shot at challenging Ding Liren for the world title, overcoming several challenges despite the presence of veterans like Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. He became the youngest-ever to win a shot at the world title.

However, this was just the start of what turned out to be an unprecedented year for Indian chess. With over 180 nations participating in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, the Indian contingent won open team golds in both men’s and women’s category. 

India also won four individual golds to clinch most medals on offer – Gukesh (Board 1) and Arjun Erigaisi (Board 3) in open category, while Divya Deshmukh (Board 4) and Vantika Agrawal (Board 4) in women’s category.

Just like Gukesh, Erigaisi too peaked in 2024. After missing out on the candidates, he became only the second Indian after five-time champion Viswanathan Anand, and 16th overall, to achieve the gold-standard ELO rating of 2800. He was on 2801 rating point as per the latest update, and also achieved his peak ranking of no. 3.

Divya Deshmukh too had a momentous 2024 as she won the girl’s title at the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship in Gandhinagar. She is also knocking on the door to become only the fourth woman from the country to earn the title of Grandmaster.

And to top all that, Gukesh made the most of his classical world title shot, beating defending champion Ding Liren to triumph. Gukesh beat Ding in the 14-game tie in Singapore, becoming the youngest-ever world champion. His triumph also meant that India got its second world champions after Vishy.

After Gukesh’s triumph, chess legend Garry Kasparov, who was the previous youngest world champion, brilliantly summed up India’s sudden rise in chess.

“Gukesh’s victory caps a phenomenal year for India. Combined with their Olympiad dominance, chess has returned to its cradle and the era of ‘Vishy’s children’ is truly upon us!” Kasparov highlighted while congratulating Gukesh on breaking his record.

Vidit Gujarathi in action© X (Twitter)

Fresh from his exploits in India’s first-ever title-winning campaign at the Chess Olympiad, Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi has decided against defending his crown at the 10th Vugar Gashimov Memorial Chess Super Tournament in Azerbaijan for an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday. Gujrathi had won the Azerbaijan event last year after outperforming compatriot Arjun Erigaisi.

He was a part of the Indian men’s team, which also included D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun, that won a historic Chess Olympiad gold in the Open category.

Gujrathi took to ‘X’, formerly twitter, to inform that he reached Baku for the event but decided to return to India to meet Modi on learning about the felicitation function.

“I reached Baku and I got to know our Hon’ble PM wants to felicitate the Indian team. I was overjoyed when I heard this and I wanted to be a part of it. It’s amazing at how such short notice he is taking out time for us,” Gujrathi wrote on ‘X’.

Gujrathi, 29, has been replaced by Aravindh Chithambaram for the event to be held from September 25-30.

“I contacted Sarkhan Gashimov (organiser) and he understood my sentiments. Big thanks to him! Wishing Aravindh the best to play against top players in this prestigious event,” Gujrathi wrote.

After winning the Chess Olympiad 2024, Vidit Gujrathi, a member of India’s victorious men’s squad, remarked that the golden era of chess has just begun for his country.

India delivered a remarkable performance at the FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, securing gold medals in both the men’s and women’s events on Sunday.

“We can call it a golden era for Indian chess, as gold has been won. The same team competed in the Asian Games, but I think everyone has stepped up their game over the past year. We were winning by significant margins, and it was a dominant performance,” Vidit said while speaking to ANI.

The chess player also addressed the incident where he missed shaking hands with his opponent, Levon Aronian.

“I have a routine of meditating before every match, which helps me stay focused and perform better. I was busy with that, which is why I missed shaking hands with him. When I opened my eyes, I then shook hands with him,” the 29-year-old explained.

With ANI inputs 

India made history on Sunday, winning an unprecedented double gold at the 45th Chess Olympiad. Both the men’s and women’s team conquered the Olympiad, delivering India’s maiden gold medals in both categories. After the victory, the Indian contingent took to the dance floor to celebrate in style. In what seemed to be a planned celebration, members of the team, led by the likes of D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa, danced to the song ‘Tunuk Tunuk’ with the trophy in hand.

Renowned Indian businessman Anand Mahindra responded humorously, stating that victory is always best celebrated in Punjabi.

“Victory is always communicated well in Punjabi,” posted Mahindra on social media platform ‘X’.

Victory is always communicated well in Punjabi!

https://t.co/4gsYhv1nVs

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) September 23, 2024

“We had planned this. We planned that when we win the medal, we will do this dance, this celebration, we will make some reels and go for dinner. Before the tournament, we were the first seeds and it was kind of expected that we would win a medal,” revealed Vantika.

This has not been the only unique celebration that the team has done. The team’s different celebrations have gone viral across social media, with the standout being D Gukesh and Tania Sachdev replicating Rohit Sharma’s iconic trophy walk from the 2024 T20 World Cup. The Instagram post of the celebration has received over 30 million views and 2.6 million likes in less than a day of being posted.

India had claimed the bronze medal – behind Ukraine and Georgia – in the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022.

India’s victorious women’s team consisted of Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev. On the other hand, the victorious men’s team consisted of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna.

India on Sunday scripted history as its men’s and women’s teams clinched their maiden gold medals in the 45th Chess Olympiad after beating their respective opponents in the final round. The men’s team defeated Slovenia after D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanadhaa won their respective matches in the 11th and final round match. The women’s team beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to clinch the title. Indian men had earlier won two bronze — in 2014 and 2022 — in the tournament. Indian women had won a bronze in the 2022 edition in Chennai. World Championship challenger Gukesh and Arjun Erigaise yet again delivered in key games to help India secure its first title in the open category.

India wins the 45th FIDE #ChessOlympiad!

Congratulations to Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan (Captain)!

Gukesh D beats Vladimir Fedoseev, and Arjun Erigaisi prevails against Jan Subelj; India… pic.twitter.com/jOGrjwsyJc

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 22, 2024

Up against Slovenia, Gukesh was at his very best in the technical phase of the game as black against Vladimir Fedoseev. Though it was a laboured victory, the 18-year-old Grandmaster was spot on with his tremendous strategic display.

Erigaise also won with black on the third board against Jan Subeli out of a surprising Centre Counter defense game.

If this was not enough, Praggnanadhaa struck form and scored a crushing victory over Anton Demchenko, as India secured 3-0 triumph over Slovenia with one game still remaining.

The Indian men ended up with a remarkable 21 points out of a possible 22. They conceded just a lone 2-2 draw to Uzbekistan while beating the rest of the opponents.

India wins the 45th FIDE Women’s #ChessOlympiad!

Congratulations to Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijit Kunte (Captain)!pic.twitter.com/zsNde0tspo

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 22, 2024

The Indian women then gave a rare double gold for the country as they scored 3.5-0.5 victory against Azerbaijan.

D Harika was at her technical best striking on the top board for the team and Divya Deshmukh yet again outclassed her opponent to confirm her individual gold medal on the third board as well.

After R Vaishali drew her game, the Indian team confirmed the victory with Vantika Agrawal scoring another brilliant triumph.

Backed by the two in-form stars in World Championship challenger D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaise, the Indian men scored a 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan in the fifth round of the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest. It seems like Gukesh and Arjun can do nothing wrong in this Olympiad as they overpowered Aydin Sulemanli and Rauf Mamedov respectively with their white pieces in quick time. Praggnanandhaa played another draw on board two to only ensure an Indian victory while Vidit Gujrathi played out a draw with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a marathon game to complete the triumph.

After scoring the fifth victory on the trot, the Indian men maintained a clean slate on ten points and they were joined by Vietnam who continued with their impressive show and downed Poland 2.5-1.5.

The other two teams that joined the leaders’ pack were China and Hungary who scored identical 2.5-1.5 victories over Spain and Ukraine respectively.

With six rounds still to come in the biggest chess event, Magnus Carlsen’s Norway and Iran are the only two teams sharing the fifth spot on 9 points apiece. Norway defeated a talented Turkey team by a 3-1 margin while Iran made most of the opportunities to down Canada 3.5-0.5.

In the women’s section, Grandmaster D Harika suffered a shock defeat to give Kazakhstan an early lead. Better for most of the game, Harika misplayed after many pundits believed her position to be winning against Bibisara Assaubayeva.

On the fourth board Vantika Agarwal yet again played the anchor and won a clean game with white pieces against Alua Nurman while Xeniya Balabayeva split the point with Divya Deshmukh.

With the scores tied at 2-2 it was Vaishali’s turn to come up triumphs for the team and she outwitted Meruert Kamalidenova.

Team India joined Armenia and Mongolia in the lead on ten points. Armenia halted the Chinese party for now handing them a 2.5-1.5 defeat while Mongolia proved superior to United States with a similar score.

The three leaders have 10 points apiece and they are now followed by Georgia and Poland a half point behind.

Gukesh scored his fourth victory in a row at the expense of Sulemanli. The World championship challenger got a huge middle game advantage with scattered black pieces and a weak king and made no mistakes in converting that in to a full point.

Arjun is the only Indian who has played all five games thus far and the primary reason is his ability to complicate matters with either colour. Up against Mamedov, it was Sicilian Dragon structure wherein Arjun converted to a complicated endgame and then his precise calculation helped him carve out his fifth win as many games.

For the records, Arjun is currently at 2888 ELO rating points in live ratings and just 12 short of attaining the magical 2800 mark – a summit captured by only Viswanathan Anand as an Indian.

The women section has seen some serious bouts wherein the tables were turned in quick time. In the next round now, the eves will take on Armenia.

World Championship challenger D Gukesh will look to improve his billing in the faster version as Vidit Gujrathi joins him for the Superunited rapid and blitz chess tournament, a part of the Grand Chess Tour. Set to meet Chinese Ding Liren in Singapore from November 20th to decide the next world champion, Gukesh has repeatedly proved his superior ability in the Classical format. But when it comes to faster version, the Indian is yet to find his place amongst the world elite.

The fact remains that in case of a tied result in the World Championship, there will be games under faster time control of rapid and blitz chess to determine the winner and Gukesh would like to set the record straight like American Fabiano Caruana just did a few days back in Bucharest when he won the tiebreaker by a mile winning his games against Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja of France.

Gujrathi, who has got a wildcard, will be the other Indian in the fray in the USD 175000 prize money tournament that will have nine rounds under rapid and 18 under blitz chess rules.

With each win worth two points in rapid and one under the blitz rules, it remains to be seen who will be the master of Zagreb but the odds are in favour of top seed Caruana who will look forward to notching back-to-back wins on the tour.

Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia and Alireza are another two players who can turn the tide in their favour on their day and here they have five playing days to prove their true mettle.

Wesley So of America, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Anish Giri of Holland are the other three in contention while local star Ivan Saric and another American Levon Aronian complete the ten-player line up.

So remains dangerous but is clearly struggling with form while Vachier-Lagrave has to prove himself yet again.

Levon Aronian led his team to a triumph in the last Global Chess League in Dubai but the former Armenian is clearly past his best. Giri, on the other hand, has had mixed success in faster version and will like to end it on a high.

All eyes will be on Gujrathi if he can replicate his magic. Gujrathi had come out as one of the best prepared players in the last Candidates tournament and there is every chance that he will spring a few surprises here.

Players: D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi (Ind); Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So (Usa); Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid); Ivan Saric (Cro); Anish Giri (Ned).