Viswanathan Anand last competed at the chess World Championship a decade ago. These days, he's not a regular player on the FIDE circuit either. Yet, in the first week of the World Championships in Singapore, where Anand has been, a crowd of admirers has followed. Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh might be the protagonists, but so far Anand has been way more than just a member of the supporting cast.
Be it when he was playing a ten-game simultaneous exhibition, or in commentary for FIDE's official channels, or being the chief guest at the Singapore national age group tournaments, demographics have been no bar for a crowd that just wanted to get a glimpse of perhaps Asia's biggest superstar in the sport. It's in stark contrast to the man who took over from Anand as the king of the chess world. Magnus Carlsen has been conspicuous in his absence from events related to the World Championship. Anand has been right at the centre of it, and the chess world has loved it.
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There have been simultaneous exhibitions done by GMs Boris Gelfand, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Xie Jun in Singapore during the first week, but the hottest tickets in town were the ones to face Anand. Utsav Rakshit, a former Singapore national cricket team player, was one of the ten who got to play against Anand. He termed it a really overwhelming experience, and thanked his lucky stars for being able to get the opportunity.
Kevin Goh Wei Ming, the CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation confessed on social media that he was horribly ill-prepared for "Singaporeans to lose their senses as quickly as they did," upon seeing Anand. And lose their senses they did. Everyone wanted a piece of Anand. When he was playing ten simultaneous games, the fanzone was packed. Fans just wanted a picture with him, from any angle, from any distance. A large majority of them lined up after Anand had finished his games to just shake his hand, take a picture or get their copy of his book signed. It didn't matter that the time Anand took for the games meant that they could potentially miss the start of game 6 between Gukesh and Ding. They could wait. An opportunity to see eye -to-eye with Anand would never come again.
Anand's influence on chess, though, goes far beyond just being this inspirational figure with the dream career. For the cream of India's next crop, Anand being hands-on with their careers has been a godsend, through the Westbridge-Anand Chess Academy (WACA). Whether it's Gukesh or the siblings R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali or Nihal Sarin or Arjun Erigaisi, WACA has been there since its inception in early 2021 - supporting them as they chart the sometimes-choppy watersof the transition from youngsters with immense potential to elite players vying for the biggest crowns.
Gukesh's path to being the challenger for the world championship is in no small part due to Anand's efforts. He identified at the right time, in late 2021, that he needed a trainer to work exclusively with him. Grzegorz Gajewski was already handling some classes at WACA, and he was Anand's first and most obvious choice to become Gukesh's full-time coach. The success the partnership has seen in such a small period of time shouldn't just been seen as a coincidence, but rather as the culmination of a vision that Anand saw.
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Other players have their own coaches and support systems that have formed along the way. Praggnanandhaa, for example, is still coached by RB Ramesh in Chennai, and is being financially supported by Adani Sportsline in terms of his training and travel abroad to the biggest tournaments in the world.
Yet, Anand is continuing to play a role in his career too. The youngster from Chennai hasn't been in the best of form recently, and admits that he is trying to find solutions, ahead of his next big tournament - the world rapid and blitz championships in New York in late December. It's a critical phase of his career, particularly as his last few months haven't gone to plan for him. He told ESPN that the concern has been not just losing rating points, but also that his game quality hasn't been really good.
"We have discussed about my chess, and the areas I should work on. Ramesh sir is speaking with Anand sir to see what he thinks about my game, and see where I'm not doing well. Anand sir has been giving some suggestions and we have been discussing about it," Praggnanandhaa told ESPN.
When WACA was created in 2021, Anand said the vision was a cross between the Botvinnik Academy in the old Soviet Union and the Samford Chess Fellowship in the US, where players could have both chess coaching, as well as financial support to help them in their careers.
But who are these players? How do they get access to the perks associated with being supported by WACA? Anand is watching every young player in India to see who could fit the bill.
At the beginning, Anand went down the obvious route. He picked out youngsters who had achieved spectacularly already, like Gukesh, who became a grandmaster when he was 12 years old. Since then, Anand says, the group has expanded a little bit, but it's mostly just him scouting promising young talents by looking at games they play. Even now, it's only been three years since WACA was formed, so of course, there is scope for improvement to their practices, but the results they have achieved with especially Gukesh shows that they are on the right track.
"Slowly I'm talking to lots of other trainers and coaches. They may say he or she is promising, and then we invite them to join the classes and we go from there," Anand told ESPN.
Even as Indian chess seems to be in the best of health, the aim for Anand and WACA is clear - the conveyor belt producing elite talent cannot be put on pause. It's Gukesh now at the world championship, it could be Erigaisi next time, and then someone else after that. The dynamics of power in the chess world clearly seem to be shifting towards India, and that is in no small part down to the number of elite players who are fighting to be the best of the best. Anand's efforts in actively contributing to such an ecosystem haven't gone unnoticed.
"Incredible efforts done by Vishy to make sure that the young generation can improve, and really show their maximum potential. It's so nice to see. It's fantastic. I have also been a very big fan and a very good friend of Vishy. When you see this, you just have even more appreciation. I didn't think it was possible to have even more appreciation for him, but now it's just without words to describe," GM Peter Leko said on commentary for chess.com during game 6 of the match between Gukesh and Ding.
For India's future chess stars, Anand is not just a spiritual inspiration as a mythical figure who went to places that no other Indian before him did. He's there for them first-hand. After leaving a legacy like none on the chess board, Anand is now creating one off it, as the godfather of Indian chess.