‘American chess will fade into obscurity’

The exponential rise of Indian chess talents is a result of solid ‘structural support, good mentors and backing from the country’ which the United States of America lacks and it’ll lead their chess scene to nowheresville is what the American Grandmaster Hans Niemann believes.
Praising the Indian chess ecosystem, while also pointing out the obvious flaws in American chess, Neimann wrote on X (Twitter), “The rise of Indian chess talents is largely due to structural support. Anand mentors all of the top players, large companies and the government support them financially. America has no infrastructure, all of the most talented players go to Ivy leagues and quit chess. If we want to dominate the chess world, we need to support young talents instead of buying players from other countries like mercenaries. If things continue this way, American chess will fade into obscurity.”
India, who have the current world champion in D. Gukesh, are also the defending champion of the Olympiad in both open and women’s sections.
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Earlier, Another US GM, world No. 2, Hikaru Nakamura echoed the same opinion about the ecosystem which is helping the Indian chess grow.
“When I look at chess, there’s one country that’s doing very, very well, where the whole ecosystem is developed the way that I wish it were say in the US. That country is obviously India where there is no great imbalance,” Nakamura had said during the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event in Weissenhaus, Germany.
“I think that it’s really great to see is when you look at chess, I think the Indian model right now is very clearly the best,” he added. Nakamura also said the sponsorship has done wonders for Indian chess.
Recently, India’s Pranav Venkatesh won the world junior championship, while 25-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram won the Prague Masters 2025.