Crowning glory

Vinayak Padmadeo

Reigning World Rapid champion Koneru Humpy was finally forced out of her social media hibernation to accept the new world. In her own words, she would rather concentrate on her game or her young family, but to celebrate the Indian team’s ‘historic’ top podium finish at the recent FIDE Online Olympiad, the queen of the chessboard broke her exile.

The customary ‘thank you’ replies to influential stars and politicians were followed by a message to her fans about the existence of a fake account in her name. “To all my fans and well wishers, this is my real account… Following account is not mine: twitter.com/HumpyKoneru. I request Twitter India to take appropriate action,” Humpy wrote on her verified Twitter page.

This was unlike anything the 32-year-old star with the FIDE rating of 2586 had done but she felt this was something she had to undertake.

“I was never interested in social media. I always knew there was a fake account but I never really bothered but after this victory, many wanted me to respond to fans so I thought OK, I should better clarify now. I am now learning a little bit how to handle the social media,” confesses Humpy, who played a stellar role in the Indian team’s passage to the final by clinching the tie-breaker against Poland.

If the discussion on her newfound dalliance with the social media brought a big chuckle over the phone, Humpy broke out into laughter when describing how fans, mediapersons and everyone got involved to solve the power outage issue that forced defeat out of a seemingly winning position for both her and captain Vidit Gujrathi against Mongolia opponents. The duo lost on time as the power backup took more time to restore their internet connection.

The minor setback got both Gujrathi and his deputy Srinath Narayanan to tap into their connections with the authorities to ensure that the team in the knockouts suffered no such misfortune. As a result, an engineer and a line worker sat near Humpy’s house in Hyderabad for every game and Viswanathan Anand’s apartment complex saw no power outage.

“This perhaps was the first instance where everyone joined hands. We downloaded a special app for backup internet. Many from the media used their contacts with the local internet guys (to ensure connectivity) and even the fans helped out,” Humpy explained.

“In the past we would win big tournaments and get covered for a day and then everybody would forget about it. We never got such attention before. But this Olympiad is historic as everyone will remember this for a very long time,” she added.

Format, juniors clicked

India benefited greatly from a change of format for this Online Olympiad. The format was changed to include junior boards — one each in the boys and girls sections. This proved advantageous for India as several talented youngsters such as Nihal Sarin (FIDE rating 2620), R Praggnanandhaa (2608) and Raunak Sadhwani (2545) have emerged in the last few years. And when called into action, they held their own. Nihal beat Igor Janik in the semi-finals against Poland when many of the accomplished names in the team, including Anand and Gujrathi, lost.

The other thing that clicked was the team spirit. Gujrathi was given a free hand on key decisions. “It was easy. Both Anand and Humpy are legends and made my life very easy. They never refused anything and practically left all the decisions to me,” Gujrathi said as he explained how it was to lead a team full of superstars.

While the Indians benefited, chess observers were quick to point out that even though getting on the podium as joint winners with Russia was a big moment for the team, a full-fledged Olympiad, where the top-five ranked players participate, will make it tough for Indians to come anywhere near a podium finish. India’s previous best finish is been a bronze medal at the 2014 tournament that was held in Tromso, Norway.

V Saravanan, an International Master, cautioned about the same. “US did not make it to the final because Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana were not in the team. When teams like Russia, USA and China compete with their full bench strength, then India is out of contention,” Saravanan said.

“But there is no denying that it is a significant achievement as they finished joint first amongst 163 countries. I hope this becomes a catalyst for chess in the country,” he added.

Chess boom

What he meant was that the Covid-19 pandemic has given a fresh lease of life to India’s booming chess fraternity. Over 69,000 Indians were logged online to watch the Russia vs India final. Portals like ChessBase India and lichess.org and talk shows by Suryashekhar Ganguly have brought a lot of buzz to the game. And it is time to sustain and encash it.

“There is a feel-good factor. There is a lot of online activity because of the pandemic. You have over 150 GMs playing Title Tuesday, which is featured on chess.com. It is here Arjun Kalyan beat Alireza Firouzja, who is touted as Magnus Carlsen’s next biggest contender,” Saravana said.

“We need to have many such tournaments in India and also showcase our stars like Gujrathi, Sasikaran. You have to make them play in India, this is the only way to raise interest,” he added.

Gujrathi has similar views on how to sustain this momentum. “I agree many of the outstation stars don’t enjoy coming to India for tournaments as they tend to lose hundreds of rating points. But we cannot sit on this thinking we have talented young players,” the team captain said.

“We have to have a proper system so that the talent doesn’t go to waste. Olympians train for four years to have one shot at glory. We need a similar professional approach,” he added.

At present, it is all down to individual effort to keep the chess train chugging. As Saravanan puts it, it will be very hard for the Indian juniors to rise to the level of Anand, who despite being past his best years is still is a force to reckon with.

“It was far easier for Anand when he broke out. Vishy, apart from being a great chess player, is also a very intelligent human being. If he was not a chess player he would have been a Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein,” Saravanan said.

“People like Vidit, Praggnanandhaa and Nihal are on par with Anand’s talent when he broke out. But talent almost doesn’t matter after reaching the 2700 mark. A person’s approach, how happy and settled he is in life… things like that will decide careers,” he said.

Crowning glory

Vinayak Padmadeo

Reigning World Rapid champion Koneru Humpy was finally forced out of her social media hibernation to accept the new world. In her own words, she would rather concentrate on her game or her young family, but to celebrate the Indian team’s ‘historic’ top podium finish at the recent FIDE Online Olympiad, the queen of the chessboard broke her exile.

The customary ‘thank you’ replies to influential stars and politicians were followed by a message to her fans about the existence of a fake account in her name. “To all my fans and well wishers, this is my real account… Following account is not mine: twitter.com/HumpyKoneru. I request Twitter India to take appropriate action,” Humpy wrote on her verified Twitter page.

This was unlike anything the 32-year-old star with the FIDE rating of 2586 had done but she felt this was something she had to undertake.

“I was never interested in social media. I always knew there was a fake account but I never really bothered but after this victory, many wanted me to respond to fans so I thought OK, I should better clarify now. I am now learning a little bit how to handle the social media,” confesses Humpy, who played a stellar role in the Indian team’s passage to the final by clinching the tie-breaker against Poland.

If the discussion on her newfound dalliance with the social media brought a big chuckle over the phone, Humpy broke out into laughter when describing how fans, mediapersons and everyone got involved to solve the power outage issue that forced defeat out of a seemingly winning position for both her and captain Vidit Gujrathi against Mongolia opponents. The duo lost on time as the power backup took more time to restore their internet connection.

The minor setback got both Gujrathi and his deputy Srinath Narayanan to tap into their connections with the authorities to ensure that the team in the knockouts suffered no such misfortune. As a result, an engineer and a line worker sat near Humpy’s house in Hyderabad for every game and Viswanathan Anand’s apartment complex saw no power outage.

“This perhaps was the first instance where everyone joined hands. We downloaded a special app for backup internet. Many from the media used their contacts with the local internet guys (to ensure connectivity) and even the fans helped out,” Humpy explained.

“In the past we would win big tournaments and get covered for a day and then everybody would forget about it. We never got such attention before. But this Olympiad is historic as everyone will remember this for a very long time,” she added.

Format, juniors clicked

India benefited greatly from a change of format for this Online Olympiad. The format was changed to include junior boards — one each in the boys and girls sections. This proved advantageous for India as several talented youngsters such as Nihal Sarin (FIDE rating 2620), R Praggnanandhaa (2608) and Raunak Sadhwani (2545) have emerged in the last few years. And when called into action, they held their own. Nihal beat Igor Janik in the semi-finals against Poland when many of the accomplished names in the team, including Anand and Gujrathi, lost.

The other thing that clicked was the team spirit. Gujrathi was given a free hand on key decisions. “It was easy. Both Anand and Humpy are legends and made my life very easy. They never refused anything and practically left all the decisions to me,” Gujrathi said as he explained how it was to lead a team full of superstars.

While the Indians benefited, chess observers were quick to point out that even though getting on the podium as joint winners with Russia was a big moment for the team, a full-fledged Olympiad, where the top-five ranked players participate, will make it tough for Indians to come anywhere near a podium finish. India’s previous best finish is been a bronze medal at the 2014 tournament that was held in Tromso, Norway.

V Saravanan, an International Master, cautioned about the same. “US did not make it to the final because Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana were not in the team. When teams like Russia, USA and China compete with their full bench strength, then India is out of contention,” Saravanan said.

“But there is no denying that it is a significant achievement as they finished joint first amongst 163 countries. I hope this becomes a catalyst for chess in the country,” he added.

Chess boom

What he meant was that the Covid-19 pandemic has given a fresh lease of life to India’s booming chess fraternity. Over 69,000 Indians were logged online to watch the Russia vs India final. Portals like ChessBase India and lichess.org and talk shows by Suryashekhar Ganguly have brought a lot of buzz to the game. And it is time to sustain and encash it.

“There is a feel-good factor. There is a lot of online activity because of the pandemic. You have over 150 GMs playing Title Tuesday, which is featured on chess.com. It is here Arjun Kalyan beat Alireza Firouzja, who is touted as Magnus Carlsen’s next biggest contender,” Saravana said.

“We need to have many such tournaments in India and also showcase our stars like Gujrathi, Sasikaran. You have to make them play in India, this is the only way to raise interest,” he added.

Gujrathi has similar views on how to sustain this momentum. “I agree many of the outstation stars don’t enjoy coming to India for tournaments as they tend to lose hundreds of rating points. But we cannot sit on this thinking we have talented young players,” the team captain said.

“We have to have a proper system so that the talent doesn’t go to waste. Olympians train for four years to have one shot at glory. We need a similar professional approach,” he added.

At present, it is all down to individual effort to keep the chess train chugging. As Saravanan puts it, it will be very hard for the Indian juniors to rise to the level of Anand, who despite being past his best years is still is a force to reckon with.

“It was far easier for Anand when he broke out. Vishy, apart from being a great chess player, is also a very intelligent human being. If he was not a chess player he would have been a Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein,” Saravanan said.

“People like Vidit, Praggnanandhaa and Nihal are on par with Anand’s talent when he broke out. But talent almost doesn’t matter after reaching the 2700 mark. A person’s approach, how happy and settled he is in life… things like that will decide careers,” he said.