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Posts: 4689
Location: Corvallis, Oregon
Joined: August 25, 2000
Contributor
Since: November 7, 2020
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Chess was not popular in India until Viswanathan Anand came along. He won the World Junior Championship in 1988, and went on to win the World Championship in 2007. Then defended his title multiple times. Thanks to Anand, India now has dozens of grandmasters, and the sport is quite popular. There was one other significant player from India before Anand, and that was Sultan Khan, who played top level chess in the early 1930s. India's best are Erigaisi (3rd highest rating), Gukesh (5th), Anand (11th) Praggnanandhaa (12th), and Vidit (22nd). That's according to the official FIDE rating list. And while India looks pretty dominant in world chess right now, the USA has just as many strong grandmasters at the very top, though most of them are a bit older than these teenage wonders from India. Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, used to dominate world chess. Not any more! The most interesting chess event recently for me was the world speed chess finals held earlier this month. Speed chess is more exciting to watch than standard slow chess. Carlsen convincingly defeated the bad boy of chess Niemann. Niemann, you recall, is the guy that breaks hotel room furniture when he loses. He was also accused of cheating some two years ago. But his chess is phenomenally good! The American Nakamura, and the Iranian born French citizen Firouzia, also participated in that speed chess event. I've played 1 grandmaster and several international masters at slow chess, and of course lost all of those games. I occasionally beat these guys in speed chess, because if I play a couple dozen games I sometimes get lucky. My best chess rating was 2385, while IMs and GMs are in the 2500-2800 range. Standard club players generally rate within 200 points of 1800. If anybody has curiosity for current chess events, probably the most convenient site is https://www.chessgames.com/, linked below. For playing chess online I prefer www.lichess.org
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