Winning moves: Why are Indians getting so good at chess?
Published : Jun 12, 2022 18:00 IST Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who is now known just as Pragg worldwide by everyone fearful of mauling his numerology-compliant name, created history this year by defeating world champion Magnus Carlsen twice--first at the Airthings Masters online chess tournament in February and then at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess competition in May. The first major impetus in the country for chess, of course, came from Viswanathan Anand, our first homegrown Grandmaster who achieved the title when he was barely 20 in 1988. His meteoric rise in the global chess landscape led to a boom in the sport's popularity, with chess academies springing up everywhere, schools and colleges encouraging chess players like never before and more and more tournaments being held across the country. Tamil Nadu has played a key role in India's emergence as a chess power by contributing 26 Grandmasters, a whopping 35 per cent of the country's 73 GMs.
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