Yes, Vishy Anand Made An Entire City And A Country Re-Discover Chess

There is an element of chess in cricket, and there is also a facet of cricket in chess. And if you are talking about these two sports in an Indian context, there is also a strong link to the city of Chennai.

Yesterday (22 September), all of them were fully evident in different ways. 

At Budapest, the Indian men's chess team secured a historic gold in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad with a  strong statement as they finished a full four points ahead of five teams in the open section.

In the women's side, too, India won the top position. This was the second time a country won gold in both sections since Soviet times (China also achieved this feat in 2018). The Soviet Union had a dominant run of double golds between 1980 and 1986.

Two years ago, in Chennai, India had a chance to achieve double gold on home soil but ended up with double bronze. But they made up for the less than satisfying third place finish in Chennai with an unprecedented dominating run in Budapest.

India set a new record in match points under the current Olympiad format  with 21/22 points. Its victory included 10 match wins and a single draw against Uzbekistan in round 9. The previous highest match point score since 2008 was 20/22, achieved by the United States in 2016.

Individually, grandmasters Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi set new benchmarks, each winning gold medals on their respective boards. Gukesh, in particular, impressed with a 9/10 score and a 3,056 tournament performance rating (TPR) — a record — and also improved on his remarkable performance in 2022.

Arjun, for his part, walked away with 2,968 TPR. Gukesh's performance earned him 30.1 rating points, moving him to world number 5 in the live ratings, while Arjun gained 19.2 points, overtaking Fabiano Caruana to become the world number 3, just 2.8 points shy of the 2,800 mark.

Indian Chess’ Glory Hour 

And with Vishwanathan Anand still ranked world 10, India has three players in the top 10 — the only country with triple representation among the elite 10. For the record, the young and emerging Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is not far behind at world number 12.

This kind of stranglehold at the top is remarkable and not seen in chess from a country other than Russia and China. India's spectacular ascendancy is spearheaded by Gukesh, Arjun and Praggnanandhaa.

Chennai lad Gukesh is though the man of the moment as he not only had a staggering Olympiad, but is also set to meet China's Ding Liren in the FIDE World Championship Match to be held between 20 November and 15 December  in Singapore.

The 17-year-old Gukesh, as is now well known, is the youngest-ever challenger to the world chess title, bettering the record of Russian icon Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he qualified for the finals 40 years ago.

Gukesh, as we had written earlier, is indubitably a creation of the chess culture of Chennai. The city's sporting ethos is well known and chess became an integral part of it with the emergence of Vishwanathan Anand in the late 1980s. Indian chess' phenomenal run can be traced back to his meteoric emergence. 

As it happens, the Japan-born American chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura said as much on X: "It is truly unfathomable how this kid would come from a country with no chess culture and not only become World Champion, but inspire generations of Indian kids to push chess forward. The legend, @vishy64theking!  Huge congratulations to India for winning the @ChessOlympiad!" 

The post on X, with a picture of a young Anand, unfortunately caught the eye of unthinking trolls as they came down on Nakamura saying that chess was invented by India much before Anand had been born. The troll armies often miss the wood for the trees and this was no exception. Nakamura was merely stating the fact that India's purple patch in chess in recent times owes it the inspirational arrival of Anand. 

Anand has been a great source of inspiration for countless youngsters in Chennai and Tamil Nadu, which is the vanguard of Indian chess upsurge. The state has around 26 grandmasters — the highest in the country.  Since 2020, India has had 16 grandmasters, with most of the winners (six) coming from Tamil Nadu.

Ashwin Is The Greatest In This Team

It is no coincidence that the likes of Anand and Gukesh are from Chennai. A city has to have sporting ethos to unearth champions like this regularly. Chennai has plenty of it in its kitty.  And that is why it has thrown up Ravichandran Ashwin too, another champion performer for India the last week. 

Ashwin, in a sense, is the Anand of Indian cricket, with a cerebral approach that kind of camouflages the strong will and sturdy competitive spirit lying underneath. Ashwin, with a match-winning century and a 6-for against Bangladesh, was inevitably the man-of-the-match at MA Chidambaram stadium, which is practically his fort as he had a similar century-and-five-for in his previous Test match here against England.

Ashwin's Test match numbers beggar another closer look and evaluate his greatness not just in Indian context but also in world cricketing context. After the just concluded Chennai Test, Ashwin at 522 wickets in 101 Tests is the eighth highest wicket-taker in the world (he just went past West Indian legend Courtney Walsh). His latest five-wicket (or more) haul in an innings is his 37th.

The second most alongside the magician Shane Warne, who also had the same number of 5-fors in his golden career. But he needed 273 innings while Ashwin has reached the milestone in just 191 innings (For the record, the Sri Lankan great Muthiah Muralidaran had a stunning 67 five-fors in 230 innings).

Ashwin has now scored a hundred and taken a five-wicket haul in the same Test four times, the second in the all-time list which is led by Ian Botham who managed this all-rounder's feat five times. Also, this is Ashwin's seventh five-for in the fourth-innings in Tests, the joint-second most, alongside Warne and Murali. (Rangana Herath tops this list with 12 five-wicket hauls.)

In terms of strike rate, average, and winning efficacy, Ashwin's numbers are among the best in the world. And it has been the case for many years now — he made his Test debut November 2011. It is also no coincidence that India's scarcely believable exceptional run in home Tests started in 2012, the time Ashwin well and truly blossomed into a world class offie. 

At the end of the Chennai Test, India has been unbeaten in a Test series in India for 4,302 days. It has not lost a Test series for over a decade. The second in the list is South Africa who last lost a Test series in their home in 2020. From 2013, Ashwin has had 315 Test wickets in India.  

These are numbers that belong to the pantheon of greatness. But somehow Ashwin has not got the same amount of praise as say a Virat Kohli or a Rohit Sharma. Without taking anything away from the contributions, it can be argued strongly that Ashwin is the best ever Indian Test cricketer to emerge after Sachin Tendulkar. That is, his contribution in Tests outstrips the likes of Kohli and Rohit. 

Cricket, Chess, Chennai And Alas, Caste

Ashwin, of course, wears his Chennainess on his sleeve more than Anand. Films, music and meme references — all quintessentially Chennai —  flow in Ashwin's articulate ways, suggesting clearly the impact of the city in his evolution as a player and individual. Anand apart from following chess as a fan has not much connection with cricket but Ashwin is the co-owner of the American Gambits, one  of the teams that will be play in the franchise-based Global Chess League.

Anand and Gukesh approach chess with a touch of Test cricket, in that they play the waiting game remarkably well in the middle portions while going for the kill in final moments. But the waiting game is only in service of a big victory to follow.

In Budapest itself, Gukesh could have still got the gold even if he had settled for a draw with the dangerous Slovenian grandmaster Vladimir Fedoseev. Instead, Gukesh went for glory in typical pinch-hitting style and steamrolled past his opponent. 

"Yesterday in the team meeting, we were already in the celebration mood. I must admit after yesterday’s game I was super-excited and I didn’t even want to play today. I wanted to play, but I hoped there would be no game. We were all very happy, but we forced ourselves to focus and come here, do the job, and then celebrate," Gukesh was quoted as saying in an interview on chess.com

That is sheer professionalism, not to lose track of the bigger and important picture even in moments of distraction. To stay humble and not think yourself above the game is a cultural thing. Many Chennai sportsmen seem to have this trait innately. And that can be an organic evolution of being in a city that appreciates self-effacement. 

Gukesh, Anand and Ashwin have all made Chennai proud. But in this hour of glory, it is also sobering to point out that while these sportsmen even when bringing so much glory to their city, they may still be considered outsiders by the prevailing dominant Dravidian sentiments which sees only their caste and language as the deciding markers. 

But the loss is not Ashwin's or Anand's or Gukesh's.