Magnus Carlsen: ‘We’re at starting of chess revolution in India which began with Vishy Anand’

Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen believes that India is barely at the beginning of a ‘chess revolution’. The nation has seen an explosion in grandmasters in recent times, with the numbers rising from simply 20 earlier than 2010, to 82 within the final 13 years.

What’s much more heartening for Indian chess is that there are at the moment 9 Indians within the prime 100 spots of the FIDE classical chess rankings: Viswanathan Anand (World No 9), Gukesh D (No 13), Vidit Gujrathi (26), Arjun Erigaisi (30), Pentala Harikrishna (32), R Praggnanandhaa (47), Nihal Sarin (53), SL Narayanan (85) and Aravindh Chithambaram (100). Out of them, gamers like Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Sarin are nonetheless of their teenagers.

“It’s awesome to see both the interest in chess (from the general public and media in India) and also the huge amounts of young Indian players that are taking over the chess scene. I think we’re just at the beginning of a chess revolution that started with Viswanathan Anand becoming a grandmaster and eventually winning the world championship. What we’re seeing now, it’s only going to get better. India is producing GMs at a higher level than ever before. Especially a player like D Gukesh is breaking into the world’s elite at an early age. I think he’s going to be the trend rather than the exception. I think they have a lot to look forward to,” mentioned Carlsen after his aspect, SG Alpine Masters, had misplaced to the Balan Alaskan Knights within the Global Chess League.

“It is a strange feeling. The two out of the six matches I have won, my team has lost”@MagnusCarlsen talks about his journey thus far on the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League @SGAlpineWarrior#GlobalChessLeague #GCL #TheBigMove #GCLonJioCinema pic.twitter.com/JRY7ViTQmO

— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) June 26, 2023

Carlsen is teammates with Gukesh, Arjun and Praggnanandhaa within the GCL and has been spending lengthy hours over meals speaking chess positions.

“All three of them are actually good. I’m simply letting them do their factor after which reply any query that they may have. But I feel they’re actually good. Most of the time they don’t want my inputs.

“The three Indian prodigies in the team, they’re really interesting to talk to when it comes to chess. They calculate extremely well. Pragg has shown in the Champions Chess tour online that he is extremely good at rapid chess… that’s when he’s at his best. The chess that he’s playing here suggests that he is taking even further steps. It’s been really impressive to see.”

Despite the defeat, the Alpine Masters are on prime of the GCL standings with the Ganges Grandmasters with 12 match factors.

“It’s strange that I have won two games out of six, and those are the only games we have lost. I think I played a decent game and showed decent technique. As for the others, they’ve done extremely well so far. Especially Pragg, who won again on the last board. He’s just doing amazing. The women’s boards as well have performed super well. It’s an unfortunate result, but we keep going,” mentioned the world no 1, who added that he now appears to be like on the TV screens throughout his personal recreation to see the place of his teammates’ boards to resolve whether or not he ought to struggle for a win or accept attracts.

On being requested how he was having fun with the workforce occasion, he mentioned: “I did not think so much about the format of the event in terms of the scoring. But it’s really good. There are many boards with different strengths. But the teams are overall fairly equal. This means every match is going back and forth. The last few days, teams were choosing to play white but then black was doing well. Then today it was a massive comeback from the players with the white pieces. I think the format is really good, it inspires fighting chess and exciting matches. For me, I think this is the way forward.”

After the five-time world champion determined to forfeit his proper to defend his crown, China’s Ding Liren grew to become the world champion. When requested how completely different his life had grow to be after letting go of the throne, he mentioned, “The thing people don’t realise is that my life isn’t so different now than it used to be. I’m still playing tournaments, preparing for them, travelling around, I enjoy it immensely. This is what I was doing before I started playing in the world championship. And this is what I plan on continuing to do for a while.”

He was additionally requested who he noticed taking on the mantle as an all-time nice after him.

“I don’t look at ‘who after me’, yet. I was asked this question 11 years ago. It was a friend of my father who asked me what I was going to do in 15 years when ‘someone who’s better than you comes along.’ I said that’s not going to happen. I’m still fighting,” he mentioned.