Koneru Humpy, aged 35, and B. Savitha Shri, aged 15, did India proud by winning silver and bronze respectively at the World rapid and blitz chess championship in the Kazakhstan city of Almaty, to finish the year in style.
The year 2022 could actually go down in history as India’s greatest ever.
Over the last couple of decades or so, India has enjoyed some significant successes – Viswanathan Anand won five World championships, the first of which came in 2000 – and virtually every year, there have been several causes to cheer about, but 2022 has been unique.
India doesn’t boast as many great talents in the women’s section as it does in the men’s. So when a 15-year-old Savitha wins a medal at an event as prestigious as the World rapid and blitz championship, after beginning as the 36th seed, it is a significant moment. As is the silver of Humpy, a former World rapid champion.
Earlier in December, another Indian woman brought much joy to Indian chess. R. Vaishali did that in the City of Joy, as she stunned a very strong field to take the blitz title in the Tata Steel Chess India tournament at Kolkata.
At that tournament, in the open section, Nihal Sarin claimed the rapid title and Arjun Erigaisi, the blitz. R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh, who complete the magnificent quartet of Indian teenagers, may have disappointed at Kolkata, but they too have had some exceptional results right through the year.
In fact, Gukesh’s outstanding performance for India-2 at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai – he won his first eight games on the trot en route to the gold on the top board – was one of the highlights of the year in world chess. And India swept the medals at the Olympiad, winning nine out of the 36 medals on offer.
The Olympiad was an organisational success too, thanks in no small measure to the active participation of the Tamil Nadu Government, which had only got just four months to conduct an event featuring more than 1700 participants from 186 countries. The Olympiad also helped chess become more mainstream in India.
With players like Praggnanandhaa consistently making news, by scoring stunning wins against the likes of World champion Magnus Carlsen, the game hit the headlines regularly. The year’s last ranking list has eight Indians in the world’s top 70.
The year also saw India continuing to win medals at the World age-group championships and promising teenagers like V. Pranav and Pranav Anand turning Grandmasters.
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