Shatranj Ke Khiladi: Changing of the guard

Sport as an idea must have existed in human life ever since we found our basic toolkit for survival on this planet. It is simply the notion of trying to get better at certain tasks than the rest and being able to repeat them at will. When we think of sport, the mind invariably wanders into the physical domain of say running, swimming, hitting, grappling or the like. But, it is also interesting to note that after a group of athletes have crossed certain qualifying thresholds in terms of this basic physicality, we often tend to refer to these contests as 'a game of chess' - it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that every sport in its core nature metamorphs into a game of chess: a dynamic sequence of decision making while preempting the possible next moves of the opponent. With India's extremely rich civilisational heritage, it is definitely no wonder that a game encapsulating this fundamental strategic concept of the best utilisation of one's army was to take birth in our land. But similar to how it has been with many other ideas, the game travelled across continents only to be formally reintroduced to us after an extended period of repression. It was only after 41 long years of India's independence from the colonial rule that we found our first chess Grandmaster in Viswanathan Anand - our very own Madras Tiger.

But before we get into the story of modern Indian chess, let's take a quick look at its origin in 6th century AD. The earliest known predecessor of modern day Chess is widely termed as 'chaturanga' - loosely translating to the four divisions of military existing then: infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariotry which eventually evolved into the pawn, knight, rook and bishop respectively. The game quickly travelled across the seas into Persia and came to be known as 'chatrang' and eventually as 'shatranj' through linguistic modifications. Later, the Mongols called it 'shatar' and the Ethiopians played it as 'senterej' - both very apparent variations of the Persian name. While there were continuous alterations to the specific rules in the versions prevalent across ages, the original Indian form continued to retain 2 key aspects of gameplay:

1) Different pieces on the board having different sets of powers

2) Final victory in the contest depending on the fate of one piece: the King

Beyond the above two fundamental tenets, older versions of Indian chess had some interesting variations as well, such as differently sized boards (an 8 * 8 'ashtapada' or a 10 * 10 'dashapada'), absence of the white-black square separation or designated 'safe' squares on which a piece could not be killed.

With that small detour down the history lane, let us come back to the turn of the 21st century: I'm fondly reminded of that day in the latter half of 2000 when we woke up to the news of 'India's first ever World Chess Champion' - being ecstatic about the very sound of that phrase, while honestly also not being able to fully comprehend the actual magnitude of the achievement. It was truly one of the defining moments in India's journey in the sporting world, reminiscent of Prakash Padukone's glorious All England triumph in 1980 or that of Leander's stand-out Bronze win at Atlanta 1996. India had found a true superstar, who then went on raising his own bar over the next two decades & continues to inspire millions. Quoting from his brilliant memoir 'Mind Master' which is a must-read for all Indians: "Through playing my game the way I have, I've learnt that it doesn't matter if the world isn't on your side or is disbelieving of your worth. Sometimes the greatest truths are hidden in clichés. Find your path, learn, strive and don't fall out of love with it if the payoff keeps you waiting. Just keep the voice of your dream alive in your head and the will on a simmer in your heart."

Vishy Anand went on to win the Chess World Championship on 5 occasions, in 2000, 2002, 2008, 2010 & 2012 and also won the title of 'Undisputed World Chess Champion' in 2007 in Mexico City. In 2006, he became only the fourth player in the open era to cross the FIDE rating of 2800+ and was unmoved as India's top rated Chess player for a period of 37 long years.

It was in the first week of August 2023 that for the first time ever since 1987, another Indian (D Gukesh) had surpassed Anand in the FIDE rating with 2755.9 vs 2754, replacing Anand as the current World number 9 in rankings. The August of 2023 shall also be remembered fondly in India's chess history for another 'first' of historic proportions: 50% of the quarterfinalists (4 out of 8) in the individual FIDE Chess World Cup were Indians: R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, Vidit Gujarathi & Arjun Erigaisi. It felt as though we'd suddenly emerged on the global Chess landscape as a formidable power to reckon with, in an attempt to regain our supremacy in a sport that is so uniquely Indian in its origin. While Vidit may have been from half a generation earlier, what makes the coming decade truly exciting is the sheer strength of our upcoming talent:

1) D Gukesh: 17 year old GM from Chennai, TN

2) R Praggnanandhaa: 18 year old GM from Chennai, TN

3) Arjun Erigaisi: 19 year old GM from Warangal, TS

4) Nihal Sarin: 19 year old GM from Thrissur, KL

All of these young guns grew up through the late 2000s watching Anand conquer the world of Chess at his prime: no wonder their aspirations know no boundaries as they've now set out to take us a notch higher. Their results over the past few years speak for themselves as to why we as Indian fans should be truly excited:

1) Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master in the world at the age of 10 & the second youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12; At the age of 16, he became the youngest player to beat the then World Champion Magnus Carlsen

2) Gukesh overtook the record of his compatriot becoming the second youngest Grandmaster, being just 17 days shy of Sergey Karjakin's record; He earned a Gold medal on Board 1 at the 44th World Chess Olympiad with a perfect 8/8 score

3) Arjun is the current reigning Indian national champion for Chess; In 2022, he won the Abu Dhabi International & Tata Steel India Blitz tournaments

4) Nihal passed the 2600 ELO rating at the age of 14, making him the third youngest to do so; He'd previously won the World U-10 Championship in 2014 and later went on to become the U-18 World Youth Champion in the Rapid format

It would be fair to say that August 2023 shall certainly be remembered as a breakthrough moment in India's journey on account of many events that transpired. It has been a month of many 'firsts' indeed:

1) India's pathbreaking moon mission Chandrayaan 3 successfully soft landed near the South Pole of the Moon, becoming the first nation ever to do so

2) India had 4 out of 8 quarter-finalists in a Chess World Cup for the first time ever since its inception

3) Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian athlete ever to win an individual gold medal in the World Athletics Championship, alongside his Olympic Gold from Tokyo 2020

4) India had 3 out of 8 finalists in an event at the World Athletics Championship for the first time ever (DP Manu - 6th, Kishore Jena - 5th & Neeraj Chopra - 1st in the Javelin Throw)

5) India's 4 * 400 Men's Relay team broke the Asian Record & finished 5th in the World Championship final for the first time ever

6) HS Prannoy became the first Indian to beat the current World number 1 Viktor Axelsen at the Badminton World Championship (which he did in a 3-game thriller!)

We have an incredibly packed 12 to 15 month calendar ahead of us with marquee events such as the Asian Games, the Cricket World Cup and the Olympics, with a number of World Championship level tournaments along the way. Be it Chess or be it the national Cricket team, we are certainly in the middle of a phase of churn - a changing of the guard. Old school resilience is giving way to new age audacity; aspirations for qualifying into the big league are giving way to an urge for world supremacy. As was evident from our iconic moon landing, we no longer intend to repeat what others have done in the past: we endeavour to imagine the unknown. While we continue to cheer our superstars, be it in the mission control centre or on the athletics field, we also need to think as to whether we ourselves are transforming into the next generation of sports fans - being not just passive observers, but being catalysts in the process of spreading the fandom across the cross section of our country. So when are you organising the next sports watch party in your living room?