MUMBAI: Still basking in the glory of India’s magnificent, unprecedented dual triumph at the at the 45th International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand termed the India men’s victory as “unreal” due to their dominance in the field, while hailing the Indian women’s win as “impressive since it was unexpected.”
India scripted history as both its men’s and women’s teams secured their first-ever titles, achieving a fabulous clean sweep of gold medals at the Chess Olympiad.”I think for chess to grow in India, it has to become popular with (women players). I want more girls to play chess and this is a long-standing goal for everyone. Including FIDE, including lots of people in chess. So that happened (India’s women’s team’s victory) is a big thing. I say unexpected because I don’t think their dominance was as big, but that’s why I find their accomplishment very impressive because they had difficult moments, unpredictable moments when it could be snatched away. It was a great achievement.
“The men’s win was impressive because there was never a moment when they felt the slightest threat. And that we won with four points is also…it feels unreal,” Anand said on Thursday at the MIG Cricket Club here, at event organized by the Global Chess League, in collaboration with Sports Journalists association of Mumbai (SJAM). After taking part in the first edition, Anand will team up with India’s recent historic Olympiad gold medalists, Arjun Erigaisi and Vaishali R for the Ganges Grandmasters in the second edition of GCL from October 3 to 12 in London.
Responding to former world champion Garry Kasparov’s tweet after India’s Olympiad triumph that “Vishy’s children are all grown up,” Anand said: “I’m flattered. I won’t say no!”
Recalling India chess’s hour of glory when both the Indian men’s and women’s teams stood first on the podium in the Olympiad, Anand said: ” You just feel very happy. You know many of them for many, many years. And, being there and celebrating with them is very nice. Also, you know what it means for the country, winning two golds in the same year. I was just happy. I can’t elaborate too much. You enjoy it at many levels, as a player, fan and as an Indian. It’s just a pleasant feeling. You’re not thinking very much at that point. You’re just there in that moment and smiling along. It was nice, I remember the (national) anthem finished once, and then a few minutes later, we had the anthem again. And that, again, is a pleasant realization when it starts.”
Did he expect India to achieve this kind of success in the chess Olympiad? “I am not that much of a futurologist. I wouldn’t have been able to imagine that. But you could see that the popularity of the game was growing steadily for several decades. And slowly barrier after barrier is being crossed. And if you look at it from that point of view, then I think what has happened in the last five years doesn’t come as such a big surprise,” Anand said.
“Though the extent of it, perhaps or how quickly it happened because it was interesting. Just to remind people, we could have won two gold medals in Chennai (the Indian women’s chess team finished with a bronze in the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai). So I wouldn’t have predicted a lot of the things that started from last year. That we would have three candidates in the men’s and two in the women. Only one was sure. And then subsequently, that one of our players would win the candidates (D Gukesh). That we will then win the Olympiad,” he added.
This triumph, Anand said, doesn’t compare to India’s online Olympiad victory a few years ago, something which the chess great himself was a part of. “I mean, it’s nice to win. But I think that this performance was more impressive. There we shared the medal, here we won outright,” he said.
Anand tipped D Gukesh to put it past Ding Liren to clinch the World Chess Championships title-the match will be held in Singapore from November 20-December 15. “On paper, right now, the results, kind of, the momentum is all Gukesh’s. And I think Gukesh knows this better than anyone. You have to turn up expecting to face the hardest thing, and then you take it from there,” the 54-year-old said.