The focus of the chess world is very much at the moment on a small island in Singapore. Sentosa is hosting the World championship match between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh, and it is proving to be closer than most people had anticipated.
But that has not been just the only talking point in chess now. Arjun Erigaisi becoming only the 15th player in history to reach the magical barrier of 2800 Elo points is also big news indeed.
That milestone is like something making 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Only 14 men have been able to do it, so far. Though Steve Smith needs only 296 runs more to become the 15th. So you get the point – when he does, there will only be 15, in the elite clubs of chess and cricket.
Classical chess is like Test cricket. It is the hardest and most respected format. Rapid and blitz chess are like ODI and T20 cricket. It was by winning the rapid and blitz titles at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament back in 2021 that Arjun caught the attention outside chess circles. Unless you followed chess closely, he wasn’t as familiar a name as R. Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin or Gukesh. So Arjun winning the rapid title and then tying for the top spot in the blitz event made people take note.
Viswanathan Anand even called Arjun a discovery. Over the years, the Tata Steel Chess India has provided a breakthrough not just to Arjun, but some other young Indian talents.
Last year, Divya Deshmukh was the surprise winner in the women’s rapid event. She was seeded last and had, in fact, come in as a last-minute replacement for R. Vaishali. It was a career best performance, at that point, by Divya, who is now one of the world’s most exciting young talents in women’s chess.
A year later, Vaishali had also come up with a career-best effort to win the women’s blitz title. She too went on to scale new peaks, and made it to the Candidates tournament, the qualifying event for the World championship.
And this year, it was Vantika Agrawal’s turn to ensure that a young Indian shone brightly in Kolkata. She was seeded last, but finished third in the women’s rapid section and fourth in the blitz.
So the Tata Steel event has proved to be a big boon for Indian chess. Until the Chennai Masters tournament was held last year – it helped Gukesh clinch a place in the Candidates – the Kolkata event was India’s only elite chess tournament.
Tata Steel is indeed delighted that its efforts have paid off. “Six years ago when we started Tata Steel Chess India, many of the players, who helped India win the twin gold at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest recently, were a part of that,” Chanakya Choudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, tells The Hindu. “I feel very happy and satisfied that we got into the act when we didn’t really think that it would take shape this way and that it would become bigger and bigger and achieve the status it has.”
Chanakya says the aim has always been to give a platform to the Indians and also get top players from overseas. “I feel that this platform has given them the confidence to play in the international arena,” he says. “This is a unique tournament where you have an equal number of players from India and outside.”
Tata Steel is also proud of the fact that there is equality in pay for men and women at the tournament. “When we started, it was more of testing the waters, and it was only the men,” he says. “Now then we added a women’s tournament, that too with equal prize-money.”
That decision was welcomed by the female players. In 2022, Anna Ushenina had said at the press conference: “I don’t remember a (chess) tournament where the prize-fund was the same for both men and women opening ceremony, because such a tournament didn’t exist.”
She benefited from that decision by the organisers. The former World champion from Ukraine went on to win the women’s rapid title.
The Tata Steel Chess India tournament has witnessed the participation of the world’s best players as well as those aspiring to become one.
So does Tata Steel have plans to have a high-profile classical tournament in India as well? It already organises one of the best classical events, at Wijk aan Zee, in the Netherlands.
“I will not say that it’s on the anvil at the moment, but yes, the conversations have been on,” says Chanakya. “The whole thought process of Tata Steel Chess India came from there. We thought we should have one edition like that in India, like the one in Wijk aan Zee. We felt we could have a feeder tournament here and the players who win can get a free entry there. Then we thought it would be better to have the rapid and blitz here in India. However, those conversations, about having a classical event in India also, have not concluded and they are still continuing. Possibly the way chess has taken off in India, maybe there is a space for one more tournament.”
The chess fans of Kolkata have shown that there is room for more big events in India. There have been excellent crowds – most days there were full houses – for the tournament.
With the Word No. 1 Magnus Carlsen making a comeback to the tournament after five years, the fans had reasons to be excited even more. The Norwegian showed his class on the chessboard too, as he won both the rapid and blitz titles with a dominant show.
This year’s tournament was held at a new venue. Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium is a world class venue and ideal for a world class tournament like Tata Steel Chess India.
If more corporate houses come forward to sponsor events like this, a lot more young Indian talents will stand to gain.
Published – December 09, 2024 02:25 pm IST
