The West has always been insecure about the rise of the young, new and fearless India. For decades, the West has perceived India as a brain drain machine, a place so entwined in its colonial and invasion past that it has forgotten its own identity.
Till the time an air of economic and racial supremacy was existent, these nations barely minded the presence of India, but now with the emergence of Bharat from India, the West seems to be running around like a headless chicken, in hopes to battle against redundancy.
The world being the sporting spectacle that it is has had its own shares of heated and tensed moments. Ironically though, the sport which has witnessed the most ‘soft power’ historically has been chess.
History of Chess
Chess was invented in India (known as Chaturang) and was pretty different from the modern version. It then spread to Persia (called Shatranj) and then found its way to Europe, eventually encapsulating the world.
It was however Russia (then Russian Empire and subsequently the USSR), where the sport gained popularity unheard of. It was excessively advocated by Lenin in order to ‘sophisticate’ and foster intellectual development in the masses. The government opened chess schools, printed chess magazines, and did everything possible to create a factory that generated champions. From 1948 to 1972, every World Champion and World Women’s Champion was from the Soviet Union.
Post 1972 was the transition of chess from being a board war to the actual off board war. It was the most influential sport in the times of the Cold War with the Boris Spassky vs Bobby Fischer rivalry being the coldest moment.
With the current scenario though, post the Ukraine invasion of Russia and the pandemic, there has been a great shift of power in the world of Chess. FIDE, which was once a geopolitical pawn for the politicians was now slowly slipping out of the hands of Russia. Russia was losing its dominance both on and off board, and for decades, the United States of America, that was the second best chess team, was finally sensing a chance to grab the chess throne.
This is where the calming breeze became a cyclonic storm
India for the past 30 years was slowly but steadily gaining momentum in the chess world, all due to one man, the Tiger of Madras, Viswanathan Anand. Maestro that was Vishy, first ever Indian chess grandmaster, and apparently was the only one to challenge the West and Russia for the chess throne. He was the world champion 5 times. In India, many people know chess just because of Vishy Anand.
Vishy had laid down a structure for Indian chess, he was orchestrating an entire revolution in India, so much so that today India has 89 Grandmasters.
In the Covid years, the popularity of chess skyrocketed. The youth in particular due to the influence of huge youtube personalities and ChessbaseIndia, had taken great liking for the sport. The chess revolution, whose foundation was laid by Vishy, was now in full swing.
The 2022 Chess Olympiad was held in India and was greatly motivated by the Indian Prime Minister. It was a successful tournament for India with bronze medals in both the women’s and open category, 2 individual golds and also the Gaprindashvili trophy. The accolades were great, but not the best.
It was in 2024 however that the game completely changed. The 45th Chess Olympiad was held in Budapest, Hungary and it wasn’t a regular Olympiad, it was a coronation of Indian chess reigning supreme. They clinched the open’s and women’s titles, won 4 individual gold medals and retained the Gaprindashvili trophy, with Gukesh recording the best ever individual performance seen in the tournament’s history.
This was the homecoming of Indian talent
Gukesh soon became the youngest undisputed Chess World Champion. When Gukesh dethroned Ding, the applause was global, but the undertone of discomfort in the western commentary was palpable.
It’s important to realise that in games like chess, there always is one person who is unbeatable. For almost a decade, that person was Magnus Carlsen, who might just be the greatest chess player ever. Just feel for the USA at this point. They were second to USSR for an eternity, then became second to China, then they couldn’t dethrone Magnus and now when Magnus himself has withdrawn from the World Championship, they have got the young brigade of Gukesh, Pragannandha, Sarin, Arjun to deal with.
Even in the women’s category, they were first in the shadows of Judit Polgar, then the Chinese domination and now they are against the likes of Divya, Vaishali, Vantika and the experience of Harika and Koneru.
So it’s all but natural that when once in a blue moon they do manage to barely come out on top, they will celebrate albeit in an exhibition match.
So when a Hikaru beats the world champion Gukesh, he under the pretext of ‘Entertainment’ will create a celebration that he would hope to rile up the Indian contingent. But barely does he know that we Indians don’t really mind his or rather the West’s nausea of seeing the Indians ruling the roost….
So when Magnus says “If Gukesh was playing Fabiano Caruana or Hikaru Nakamura in this match and played the same way, he would probably have had a very difficult time.” And calling him a ‘weaker player’.
Or when Fabiano after losing the Candidates’ implies Gukesh to be Lucky.
Hikaru saying Gukesh saw ‘Ghosts’
Or even after Gukesh’s win over Carlsen, the Norway chess account posted a TikTok mocking Gukesh’s early pawn sacrifices as a “full squadron blunder,” captioning it to imply luck over strategy.
Even to the extent of Kramnik accusing ChessBaseindia board cameras to partake in cheating.
The insecurity of the West couldn’t be clearer, but does it really matter to these young, hungry and ambitious trailblazers?
They can toss up the king into the crowd, we will win the hearts of the audience.
They can smash the table, we will smash the records.
They can try to dethrone, we will never leave the throne.
They can ‘entertain’, we will reign.
