From Anand to Gukesh: India’s chess revolution

Chess is believed to have originated in India, in the form of the ancient game chaturanga. Yet when Viswanathan Anand became a grandmaster in 1988, he was India’s first. Today India has more than eighty grandmasters, an Olympiad gold medal and a world champion. Here is how that happened.

The Lightning Kid

Anand learnt chess from his mother in Madras and became famous for playing extremely fast. After becoming India’s first grandmaster, he rose into the world’s top five and became world champion in 2000. From 2007 to 2013 he was undisputed world champion, defending the title three times. For millions of Indians, Anand’s success was the first time they had followed chess at all.

Building a system

Anand’s example inspired parents to send children to chess clubs, especially in Tamil Nadu. Chennai, his home city, became a centre of junior chess with coaches, tournaments and schools that took the game seriously. The academy that bears his name helped train the best young players.

The pandemic boom

During the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, online chess exploded. Comedians such as Samay Raina and Tanmay Bhat streamed games against grandmasters, attracting large young audiences who had never played seriously. Chess suddenly became fashionable.

The new generation

A wave of teenagers broke into the world’s elite in the early 2020s. In 2024 India won both the open and women’s sections of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, and in December that year Gukesh D, aged eighteen, defeated Ding Liren of China to become the youngest undisputed world champion in history.

What comes next

India now has a deep pool of strong players, government recognition for chess as a sport, and a world champion still in his teens. If Anand built the foundation, Gukesh and his peers are building the house — and India looks set to remain one of the strongest chess nations for many years.