It was kind of obvious. When we as a team sat down to identify our focus sport for the Tata Steel Trailblazers Conclave 3.0, the answer was staring at us. Chess. There can be no debate that Indian chess took giant strides in 2024. In the words of Viswanathan Anand, “There is no doubt the sport is doing well and the future is looking great, but it will take some doing to match 2024.”
Anand is right when he says this. From D Gukesh winning the candidates and Arjun Erigaisi crossing the 2800 Elo rating, to India winning the men’s and women’s golds in the Olympiad and Gukesh becoming world champion, it was the best year possible. And 2025 has started on an equally vibrant note, with R Praggnanandhaa winning the Tata Steel Chess and Gukesh coming a close second.
The women’s game too has taken a significant stride forward. R Vaishali, Koneru Humpy, D Harika, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal and Tania Sachdev all had a good 2024. While the gold in the Olympiad stood out, Humpy’s world championship medal was another real highpoint.
Away from the boards as well, chess has taken giant strides in the year gone by. Thanks to the efforts of Sagar Shah and his team at Chessbase India, there is now a constituency that consumes almost every match that is telecast. The Gukesh-Pragg tie-breaker was watched by over 50,000 people and the Gukesh’s World Championship clash with Ding Liren saw audiences of close to 150,000 daily. Chess influencers have become known names on social media, and Tania, for example, has also branched out into commentary. Sagar is now a permanent fixture at events across the world and, in every sense, the sport has grown.
To go back to Anand one more time. “We now have a generation of players,” he said. “Even Gukesh, having become world champion at the age of 18, has the best part of his career ahead of him. This entire generation of players – Gukesh, Arjun, Pragg – the sport is very strong at the moment, and I am pleased that, not just personally but also through the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, I have had a role to play in it. The youth of the country will continue to engage with the sport in the future is my hope, and that’s really very good news.”
This is what we will celebrate at Tata Steel Trailblazers 3.0. It is rare that India dominates a sport which has a global footprint. Three Indians in the men’s top 10 is evidence of India’s growing strength.
After the Soviet era, this is the first time a nation looks all set to dominate world chess. “For the longest time, it was Anand,” said Dibyendu Barua. “And he still has a major role to play in inspiring these players. Magnus Carlsen had said it three years earlier. He had mentioned that India will dominate world chess. Now it is proving to be true.”
While celebrating the sport, we will also celebrate India’s first chess genius, Sultan Khan, who beat the best in the world between 1929 and 1933. In a chess career that lasted approximately five years, he won three British Chess Championship titles in 1929, 1932 and 1933. Thereafter, he came back to India and did not play competitive chess. Over the course of his career, he beat legends like José Raúl Capablanca, victories that were regularly reported by the Times of India.
Also Read: Arjun and Hari: Unsung heroes of Indian one-two at Tata Steel chess
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