2026 chess season tracker

[vvvslaxman]

2 minutes ago, crictime said:

Anand was a step back imo in our times as well. Kasparov was more popular in India and tournament payers looked to analyse Kasparovs matches and openings more than Anand. We hardly studied what Anand did in matches. Magnus Carlsen is getting that popularity in current times.

Anand was massively popular. You really think those guys knew who kasparaov was without knowing who Anand was. I am just saying Chess was not that big a sports in entire India. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crictime]

53 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

Anand was massively popular. You really think those guys knew who kasparaov was without knowing who Anand was. I am just saying Chess was not that big a sports in entire India. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popularity is different than rating. Kasparov used to beat Anand more often than not and hence a reason why even Indians prepared for on basis of Kasparovs games before tournaments. Anand was not even the second option after one had finished Kasparovs games, if at all. 

Chess is not even popular today as well.  Chess in India is still not big and it need not be big if people are not interested. People in India have never played chess as much and so be it .How many percetage of Indians played tournaments then and now should not matter. Whatever little percentage of our populatiom plays chess is timepass non-tournament level and so be it. A game cannot be enforced. Let people accept it if they like else let it remain unpopular. Why does it needs to be big or rather how is it supposed to be big if the mass does not likes and does not plays the game.In fact I am pleasantly surprised that few Indian players have won some major chess tournaments recetly.  I would say we have punched more than expected.

 

Edited September 10, 2025 by crictime

[vvvslaxman]

20 minutes ago, crictime said:

Popularity is different than rating. Kasparov used to beat Anand more often than not and hence a reason why even Indians prepared for on basis of Kasparovs games before tournaments. Anand was not even the second option after one had finished Kasparovs games, if at all. 

Chess is not even popular today as well.  Chess in India is still not big and it need not be big if people are not interested. People in India have never played chess as much and so be it .How many percetage of Indians played tournaments then and now should not matter. Whatever little percentage of our populatiom plays chess is timepass non-tournament level and so be it. A game cannot be enforced. Let people accept it if they like else let it remain unpopular. Why does it needs to be big or rather how is it supposed to be big if the mass does not likes and does not plays the game.In fact I am pleasantly surprised that few Indian players have won some major chess tournaments recetly.  I would say we have punched more than expected.

 

 

How many actually play snooker, billiards.  Michael Ferrira , PRakash padukone and Geet sethi were very popular. YOu don't have to play to know who are popular from your country. Basic general knowledge is all you need.

Edited September 10, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[Gollum]

Hope Arjun and one of the honorary Indians (Anish/Abhimanyu) qualify to candidates. Even Nihal has an outside chance, good to see him doing well in classical for a change.  

 

Abhimanyu should seriously consider switching federations to India. His father was talking about lack of sponsorship in a Chessbase interview last year. That won't be a problem in India, and our Olympiad team will get even more stacked. 

 

Gukesh probably needs a break, all the criticism and undermining may be taking a psychological toll on the kid. Pragg will anyway qualify to candidates, not worried about him. 

Edited September 10, 2025 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Apart from Uzbekistan, Turkey is going to be a problem for us in coming years. Erdogmus and Ediz Gurel are on course to becoming elite players very soon. Erdogmus broke into top 100 at the age of 14, and is being coached by former super GM from Azerbaijan, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. 

 

Iran too could have been a legit threat but for their crazy mullah regime. 

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, crictime said:

Anand was a step back imo in our times as well. Kasparov was more popular in India and tournament payers looked to analyse Kasparovs matches and openings more than Anand. We hardly studied what Anand did in matches. Magnus Carlsen is getting that popularity in current times.

Some Indians knew about Kasparov because of Anand, not the other way around. Like how we know about Carolina Marin because of PV Sindhu. Our people may be second best but they inspire our next generation, not some folks sitting 3000 miles away no matter how great they are. 

 

Did anyone in India care about chess before early 90s? Did Indians study Botvinnik, Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov in 60s, 70s and 80s?

 

Regarding influence on openings, Kasparov (and other Russians) had an advantage those days because of their childhood training (Botvinnik's Soviet School of Chess), strong peer group, seconds/teams, and world championship experience. Kramnik (like Karpov/Kasparov, another pupil of Botvinnik) has an even bigger influence on modern chess opening after his Berlin defence in 2000, which ended the 'e4 is best by test' myth. Anand's preparation became famous only after his 2008 Bonn match, where Kramnik couldn't handle his sharp lines of Semi-Slav.

 

Anand had severe handicaps in his early days because of lack of chess culture in India (his peers in late 80s were Barua, Thipsay and some 2200s), but he paved the way for others. Don't forget he was the first GM from India, there is no equivalent of that in rest of the world where 1st GM also becomes a number 1/world champion/ATG. 

Edited September 10, 2025 by Gollum

[Tillu]

3 hours ago, crictime said:

Anand was a step back imo in our times as well. Kasparov was more popular in India and tournament payers looked to analyse Kasparovs matches and openings more than Anand. We hardly studied what Anand did in matches. Magnus Carlsen is getting that popularity in current times.

 

Nobody knew about Gavaskar and Kapil Dev because they were  many steps back during their times against stronger players like Greg Chappel, Windies pace quartet, Lillie and Thommo.

[Gollum]

19 hours ago, randomGuy said:

Yes, but for gukesh,with his work ethic, his track record and his age, this will probably push him beyond 2800 elo. 

Itihass gawah hai ki whenever people write off Indians, we come back stronger. Gukesh will come back at some point and he will soar to greater heights than in the past. Anyway our player pool is so big that we no longer depend on just 1 or 2 guys. Gukesh, Pragg won't win here, but Arjun/Nihal are in contention. Likewise I will be very surprised if few of our boys don't make deep run in upcoming FIDE WC in Goa. Rest of the world can watch in exasperation as some Indian will always dominate any event in the future.

 

Am not even talking about our women here. Divya, Vaishali, Vantika will carry forward the mantle from Humpy/Harika and achieve greater highs. 

[Gollum]

11 minutes ago, Tillu said:

 

Nobody knew about Gavaskar and Kapil Dev because they were  many steps back during their times against stronger players like Greg Chappel, Windies pace quartet, Lillie and Thommo.

Both Sunny and Kapil were ATGs in their own right. But Indian cricket was weak that time, so didn't appeal to rest of the world. In Packer's WSC, there wasn't a single Indian, but inferior players from Eng/Pak were in high demand. 

 

Anyway we are going in a tangent here. Won't digress any more. 

Edited September 10, 2025 by Gollum

[crictime]

3 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

How many actually play snooker, billiards.  Michael Ferrira , PRakash padukone and Geet sethi were very popular. YOu don't have to play to know who are popular from your country. Basic general knowledge is all you need.

I never said Anand was not popular. I said Kasparov used to win against Anand a lot and hence his games were researched more amongst tournament players incuding those in India.

[randomGuy]

37 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Itihass gawah hai ki whenever people write off Indians, we come back stronger. Gukesh will come back at some point and he will soar to greater heights than in the past. Anyway our player pool is so big that we no longer depend on just 1 or 2 guys. Gukesh, Pragg won't win here, but Arjun/Nihal are in contention. Likewise I will be very surprised if few of our boys don't make deep run in upcoming FIDE WC in Goa. Rest of the world can watch in exasperation as some Indian will always dominate any event in the future.

 

Am not even talking about our women here. Divya, Vaishali, Vantika will carry forward the mantle from Humpy/Harika and achieve greater highs. 

Health and fitness wise also, he is way ahead of arjun nihal pragg. Record also speaks for itself. He delivered big time in biggest pressure situations as a teenager...i think he should quit rubbish like chess960, faster and online games, just keep working on classical which is his only and shinning success area and the most prized thing in the world of chess.

Edited September 10, 2025 by randomGuy

[Gollum]

11 minutes ago, randomGuy said:

.i think he should quit rubbish like chess960, faster and online games

I think these formats are also messing with Pragg, Nodirbek, Firouzja, Vincent. Establish yourselves in classical first and then try these other things, these are very young guys, lots of time left in their careers to expand their CV.  

Edited September 10, 2025 by Gollum

[randomGuy]

9 minutes ago, Gollum said:

I think these formats are also messing with Pragg, Nodirbek, Firouzja, Vincent. Establish yourselves in classical first and then try these other things, these are very young guys, lots of time left in their careers to expand their CV.  

 

And if I may add, Gukesh has an aura of control, of determination, of respect, an aura of a people's champ. Which is not even there in magnus, kasparov, fischer....last the aura of a people's champ was there in vishy and karpov.

 

Let's say stay world champion for 10 years and in top 3 classical rank, after that he can do whatever the heck he wants 

Edited September 10, 2025 by randomGuy

[crictime]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Some Indians knew about Kasparov because of Anand, not the other way around. Like how we know about Carolina Marin because of PV Sindhu. Our people may be second best but they inspire our next generation, not some folks sitting 3000 miles away no matter how great they are. 

 

Did anyone in India care about chess before early 90s? Did Indians study Botvinnik, Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov in 60s, 70s and 80s?

 

Regarding influence on openings, Kasparov (and other Russians) had an advantage those days because of their childhood training (Botvinnik's Soviet School of Chess), strong peer group, seconds/teams, and world championship experience. Kramnik (like Karpov/Kasparov, another pupil of Botvinnik) has an even bigger influence on modern chess opening after his Berlin defence in 2000, which ended the 'e4 is best by test' myth. Anand's preparation became famous only after his 2008 Bonn match, where Kramnik couldn't handle his sharp lines of Semi-Slav.

 

Anand had severe handicaps in his early days because of lack of chess culture in India (his peers in late 80s were Barua, Thipsay and some 2200s), but he paved the way for others. Don't forget he was the first GM from India, there is no equivalent of that in rest of the world where 1st GM also becomes a number 1/world champion/ATG. 

Depends on what age group you are talking about. Also opinion of people will differ, which is okay.

 

Kasparov was popular before Anand's time. As such Kasparov was already in highlights.

 

Books had games of Fischer, Tal and older legends. Only few newspapers used to post the moves of the game while most used to just give news of who won. There  was no internet and it was hence hard to get hands on chess games at a speed which the kids of today do.

Anand was India's first role model, but we were used to check games of Kasparov and preferred his play more than Anand. I know this will not please many here on Indian forum but we wanted to learn from the best and Kasparov had made his name before Anand. We wanted to study matches of the best when we prepared for tournament. Various reasons why one can opt to study Kasparov matches more than anand or other player. Age factor, formative years, style of play of  a player, availability of study material etc. 

Apart from Kasparov, many of us discussed games of Bobby Fisher but I didnt play his openings in tournaments. That was because there was not enough time to devote to chess and whatever was available was used in referring Kasparov, Fischer, Karpov games. Then came Anand and I did go through some of his games but that was too less. Others who played with me did discuss Anand's games but like me we were not to keen on reasearching his games as we did of others. No cribbing if others had different approach towards a tournament. What suits one may not suit other.  

 

Edited September 10, 2025 by crictime

[Gollum]

Vaishali wins Grand Swiss...follows Divya's win in WC.

 

Giri open champion, candidates spot booked. 

 

Nihal breaches 2700.

[Gollum]

 

[randomGuy]

On 9/15/2025 at 9:03 PM, Gollum said:

Vaishali wins Grand Swiss...follows Divya's win in WC.

 

Giri open champion, candidates spot booked. 

 

Nihal breaches 2700.

Both the siblings going great guns!! I think that's a first in world chess.

 

Happy for Giri. Good personality for world of chess.

 

Happy for Nihal. He used to look worn out from speed chess. Good to see him focus on the real deal i.e. classical chess.

Edited September 17, 2025 by randomGuy

[Gollum]

Vishy Anand getting lots of flak from libbus, opposition supporters for posting birthday wishes for PM Modi

 

Btw SRK, Aamir, Alia Bhatt, Mukesh Ambani also getting similar treatment for putting out videos for his birthday. But unka toh chalta rahta hai, first time seeing Vishy getting backlash. 

 

Thora cringe hai, but it's just a birthday, why so much brouhaha over this?

Edited September 18, 2025 by Gollum

[Lord]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Vishy Anand getting lots of flak from libbus, opposition supporters for posting birthday wishes for PM Modi

 

Btw SRK, Aamir, Alia Bhatt, Mukesh Ambani also getting similar treatment for putting out videos for his birthday. But unka toh chalta rahta hai, first time seeing Vishy getting backlash. 

 

because he forgot to edit it lol

 

 

 

[Gollum]

11 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

because he forgot to edit it lol

 

 

 

Think he deleted it soon and reposted it. Anyway why this much crying over a birthday wish? Opposition folks always find the most useless issues to make noise about. They are inventing ways to antagonize people. 

Edited September 18, 2025 by Gollum