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In the previous two episodes, we covered Viswanathan Anand's illustrious career. The former World Champion, known for his "lightning chess", has sparked a wave of chess enthusiasm in his home country. Chess is booming in India, with the game's popularity growing at an incredible pace. Chess trainers are working tirelessly to nurture young talents, and by 2024, a new Indian challenger has emerged to compete for the world championship. Seventeen-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh won the Candidates Tournament in Canada, and he is set to face the reigning world champion, Ding Liren from China, in a highly anticipated World Championship match in November 2024.
India’s chess talent extends beyond Gukesh. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit represented India at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in September, where they convincingly secured victory, outperforming strong teams like the United States, China, and 2022 winners Uzbekistan. In the women's tournament, India also won gold.
Several factors have contributed to the rise of chess in India, including the global shift to online platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic and the popularity of the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit. Anand’s own immense popularity has been a key factor as well.
A testament to the growing Indian presence in chess is Abhimanyu Mishra, a U.S. player with Indian roots, who became the youngest grandmaster in history. On June 30, 2021, at just 12 years old, Mishra achieved the title, breaking the previous record held by Russian Sergey Karjakin.
Returning to Anand, while he is no longer world champion, he remains a formidable opponent. Though he is getting older, his competitive spirit remains youthful. He continues to participate in numerous tournaments, and his games still inspire players worldwide.
Among the vast collection of brilliant moments from Anand’s career, I have selected a few memorable examples. The first is from a personal experience I had with him during the 1993 PCA qualifying tournament in Groningen. I was hired, along with Slovenian GM Adrian Mikhalchishin, to provide live commentary. The setup was quite different from today. In the tournament hall, large demonstration boards displayed the games, with people transcribing the moves from score sheets and manually updating the boards. These moves were then relayed to the commentary room, which was always packed with spectators.
Mikhalchishin often invited top players to provide brief commentary after their games, and when Anand appeared, the room was so crowded that people were standing on tables just to catch a glimpse of him. One notable moment occurred during an Anand-Serper game, a Rauzer variation of the Sicilian. At some point, the move Kb1 was played. Mikhalchishin explained that this was one of those "typical grandmaster moves" that are always useful. However, someone in the audience challenged this, saying they didn’t understand why such an apparently pointless move had to be played.
When Anand joined us in the commentary room, the same spectator asked him why this "automatic" move, which seemed to have no concrete reason, was always played. Anand’s response was astonishing. He quickly rattled off an alternative line in the opening, demonstrating that this move could sometimes have a very concrete purpose. He took the position back to the 7th move, showing that instead of 7...a6, the game could proceed with 7...0-0, leading to 8.0-0-0 0-0 9.f4 Qb6 and 10.Nb3 Rd8. Here, White plays 11.Kb1! to prepare for Black’s possible breakout with 11...d5. Anand revealed a stunning idea: after 12.Bxf6 dxe4 comes the queen sacrifice 13.Bxe7!!, a brilliant concept leading to 13...Rxd2. The audience was left pondering the point of this sacrifice, and in the accompanying video, we explain why the move 11.Kb1! was so powerful.
Another anecdote I’d like to share involves a lesser-known encounter between Anand and Dutch player Manuel Bosboom. During an open tournament in Ter Apel, where both Bosboom and I participated, Bosboom told me about some spectacular opening novelties he had prepared, including a remarkable queen sacrifice in the Queen’s Indian Defense with 4.a3—a variation I often used with both White and Black.
When playing through the blitz games between Anand and Bosboom from the Hoogovens tournament 1999, Bosboom had a chance to try his novelty and the diagram position below appeared on the board. I was keen to see how Anand would handle it. What brilliant counter did Anand have up his sleeve to nullify White's compensation?
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