Magnus Carlsen: ‘We’re at beginning of chess revolution in India which started with Vishy Anand’

Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen believes that India is only at the start of a ‘chess revolution’. The country has seen an explosion in grandmasters in recent years, with the numbers rising from just 20 before 2010, to 82 in the last 13 years.
What’s even more heartening for Indian chess is that there are currently nine Indians in the top 100 spots of the FIDE classical chess rankings: Viswanathan Anand (World No 9), Gukesh D (No 13), Vidit Gujrathi (26), Arjun Erigaisi (30), Pentala Harikrishna (32), R Praggnanandhaa (47), Nihal Sarin (53), SL Narayanan (85) and Aravindh Chithambaram (100). Out of them, players like Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Sarin are still in their teens.
“It’s awesome to see both the interest in chess (from the general public and media in India) and also the huge amounts of young Indian players that are taking over the chess scene. I think we’re just at the beginning of a chess revolution that started with Viswanathan Anand becoming a grandmaster and eventually winning the world championship. What we’re seeing now, it’s only going to get better. India is producing GMs at a higher level than ever before. Especially a player like D Gukesh is breaking into the world’s elite at an early age. I think he’s going to be the trend rather than the exception. I think they have a lot to look forward to,” said Carlsen after his side, SG Alpine Masters, had lost to the Balan Alaskan Knights in the Global Chess League.

“It is a strange feeling. The two out of the six matches I have won, my team has lost”@MagnusCarlsen talks about his journey so far at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League @SGAlpineWarrior#GlobalChessLeague #GCL #TheBigMove #GCLonJioCinema pic.twitter.com/JRY7ViTQmO
— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) June 26, 2023
Carlsen is teammates with Gukesh, Arjun and Praggnanandhaa in the GCL and has been spending long hours over meals talking chess positions.

“All three of them are really good. I’m just letting them do their thing and then answer any question that they might have. But I think they’re really good. Most of the time they don’t need my inputs.
“The three Indian prodigies in the team, they’re really interesting to talk to when it comes to chess. They calculate extremely well. Pragg has shown in the Champions Chess tour online that he is extremely good at rapid chess… that’s when he’s at his best. The chess that he’s playing here suggests that he is taking even further steps. It’s been really impressive to see.”
Despite the defeat, the Alpine Masters are on top of the GCL standings with the Ganges Grandmasters with 12 match points.

“It’s strange that I have won two games out of six, and those are the only games we have lost. I think I played a decent game and showed decent technique. As for the others, they’ve done extremely well so far. Especially Pragg, who won again on the last board. He’s just doing amazing. The women’s boards as well have performed super well. It’s an unfortunate result, but we keep going,” said the world no 1, who added that he now looks at the TV screens during his own game to see the position of his teammates’ boards to decide whether he should fight for a win or settle for draws.
On being asked how he was enjoying the team event, he said: “I did not think so much about the format of the event in terms of the scoring. But it’s really good. There are many boards with different strengths. But the teams are overall fairly equal. This means every match is going back and forth. The last few days, teams were choosing to play white but then black was doing well. Then today it was a massive comeback from the players with the white pieces. I think the format is really good, it inspires fighting chess and exciting matches. For me, I think this is the way forward.”

After the five-time world champion decided to forfeit his right to defend his crown, China’s Ding Liren became the world champion. When asked how different his life had become after letting go of the throne, he said, “The thing people don’t realise is that my life isn’t so different now than it used to be. I’m still playing tournaments, preparing for them, travelling around, I enjoy it immensely. This is what I was doing before I started playing in the world championship. And this is what I plan on continuing to do for a while.”
He was also asked who he saw taking over the mantle as an all-time great after him.
“I don’t look at ‘who after me’, yet. I was asked this question 11 years ago. It was a friend of my father who asked me what I was going to do in 15 years when ‘someone who’s better than you comes along.’ I said that’s not going to happen. I’m still fighting,” he said.