NEW DELHI, Sep 5: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on Tuesday said he could not have asked for a stronger Indian chess lineup in the upcoming Asian Games.
Indian chess has been on a stunning upswing, and in the recently-concluded Baku World Cup, an unprecedented four Indian players advanced to the quarterfinals, with R Praggnanandhaa making history by becoming the youngest to win a silver medal.
Adding to this wave of success, last week saw Anand’s 17-year-old protege, D Gukesh, ending his mentor’s 37-year-long reign as India’s No. 1 player.
Gukesh achieved an impressive Elo rating of 2758, surpassing the Indian legend by four points and marking a significant milestone in the country’s chess history.
“I’m always nervous to just look at the rankings and think, oh, we’re going to win this, we’re going to win that,” Anand said during a media interaction on the sidelines of Tata Steel Chess India here.
“There are other very good teams. Uzbekistan is good. Vietnam is good. China will field a great contingent. So we will have rivals, but you can’t ask for a better team than what we have,” he said about India’s Asian Games prospects.
“Standards in India have caught up with everywhere else. And still, I don’t want to explain this only in general terms. We must give credit to the individuals.
“This is a very talented group of individuals. Whether they outperform the previous generation is up to them and we will see. But we have a talented generation of individuals.” China will be spearheaded by the reigning world champion Ling Diren.
India have named a 10-member squad in men’s and women’s section with the likes of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Arjun Erigaisi leading the men’s challenge.
GM Koneru Humpy, a two-time Asian Games gold medallist, and Harika Dronavalli will lead the women’s challenge.
Speaking about India’s rise in chess, Anand said he never anticipated something like this would happen when he started his academy (WACA) three years ago. (PTI)
