The best year ever for Indian chess

The year 1997 was perhaps the best Indian chess has ever had. Achievements speak for themselves and fortunately for India, the achievement ...

The year 1997 was perhaps the best Indian chess has ever had. Achievements speak for themselves and fortunately for India, the achievement graph did not begin and end with Viswanathan Anand, who right now is in the most important phase of his career — just one step away from having at shy at the FIDE World title. The New Year may well see him unseat Anatoly Karpov in Lausanne and become the first Indian to be crowned World chess champion.

For years after Anand became India’s first GM in 1987, Indian chess was yearning for more of the kind. The gap between Anand and Dibyendu Barua and Pravin Thipsay — then the two best prospects for GM — was rather big to enthuse many. But, in process, what many overlooked was the fact that Anand was not a product of the system but luckily enough the system itself got helped along by Anand’s exploits, both monetarily and publicity-wise.

Even for Anand himself, it was like crossing the Amazon and climbing the Everest as he started the year rather sedately in Linares. But since then he just went from strength to strength, scaling new heights in Dos Hermanas, Monte Carlo, Munich, Biel, Belgrade and finally in Groningen. He was either champion or joint champion in all these events in which the very best competed.

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But what about the others? Krishnan Sasikiran of Tamil Nadu was undoubtedly the revelation of the year. Neelotpal Das of Goodricke Chess Academy, Calcutta, too, had a great year while Pravin Thipsay of Maharashtra achieved his long-awaited GM title and became the third Indian to join the elite band. Koneru Humpy of Andhra Pradesh continued India’s newfound grip in world age-group chess with the world title in Under-10 and Abhijit Kunte of Pune, Maharashtra completed a rare treble with his National junior, National A and Asian junior titles, the last one also earning him a GM norm.

Then there was a sweet double for India in the Asian sub-junior championships in Mumbai with Tejas Bakre of Gujarat and Aarthie Ramaswamy walking away with the first places.

Sasikiran had a fantastic year right from his IM norm in the Goodricke tourney in February. The 16-year-old beat several Grandmasters last year after he set out on Canadian and British tour. He capped it with his resounding success in the National B (winning the title and becoming the youngest to qualify for National A after Barua and Anand).

Abhijit Kunte is just past 20 and promises to stay in the top bracket of Indian chess for many years. Koneru Humpy’s triumph in Cannes, in the World under-10 girls competition was the icing on the cake as last year P Harikrishna of Andhra won the boys world under-10 title.

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With this young lot emerging as major force to reckon with, Indian chess is surely having its best time ever.

Success stories

V.Anand, who finished first or joint first in quite a few Super Gm tournaments and, at the time of writing, playing the final round of FIDE world qualifiers.

K Sasikiran, who not only completed his IM title, but went on to earn his first GM norm besides winning the National B title and all this at 16

Koneru Humpy, who won the world under-10 girls title, making it the first world title in the women’s section in chess

Flop stories

Dibyendu Barua, who was not able to make any noticeable impression and in the FIDE World championships lost in the first round.

DV Prasad continued to hover between mediocre and dismal and is still awaiting Grand Master title.

P Harikrishna, last year’s world under-10 boys champion, had a sedate year, and failed to medal in Under-12 category this time.

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