Great year for Indian chess

[Gollum]

The year 2014 saw the resurgence of the old lion Vishy Anand after a couple of underwhelming years. He may be on his last legs but is still a mighty force to reckon with in world chess. After the lows of Chennai in 2013 when everybody had written him off and demanded his retirement he made one of the greatest comebacks in the history of chess by winning the Candidates in Khanty Mansiysk finishing undefeated ahead of superstars like Aronian, Kramnik,Topalov, etc. He finished unbeaten in FIDE Rapid Championship in Dubai inflicting the only loss on Carlsen in that event. He also won Bilbao masters ahead of the Championship in Sochi. In Sochi he gave a hell of a fight to Carlsen and lost because of some bad luck and weaker nerves. The double blunder in G6 must have changed the history of chess. But the way the 45 year old went toe to toe against his 23 year old opponent who was at the peak of his career earned plaudits from chess fans worldwide. To finish of the year he won London Chess Classic ahead of Caruana,Kramnik,Nakamura,Giri,Adams to round off a strong year. Hope he continues this way in 2015. Indian men's team won the Chess Olympiad bronze medal ahead of 180 odd countries finishing ahead of bigwigs like Russia,Armenia,Ukraine,Georgia,Azerbaijan,USA,France,Germany,etc.This was the 1st time India had landed a medal in chess Olympiad and the 1st time a former USSR country failed to land a medal. Sign of the times? Vishy Anand has started a chess boom in India which hopefully in a couple of decades makes us a superpower in chess like former USSR.The best thing about this was that we achieved this great landmark without the presence of our 2 highest rated players Anand and Harikrishna. In the womens event we didn't have the best of times but finishing 10th among 180 countries isn't bad either !!! Sasikiran and Padmini Rout got individual board medals. Worst thing about this was the lack of media coverage over one of the greatest triumphs by India in the 21st century in sports. Moving on to other players Humpy is losing it now. She was one of the main contenders for the Women's crown for the past 8 years but the dominance shown by Hou Yifan has made sure that no other woman can lay her hands on the crown. This and the fact that she got married must have taken the edge out of her preparation. Harika(pictured above) is a revelation and might take Humpy's position as Queen of Indian chess very soon. Others like Tania,Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini etc don't have the talent to enter the world elite but can play at a decent level. Coming to the men Sasikiran made a grand comeback in the Olympiad after his hiatus for the past few years. Harikrishna had a decent year, Vidit Gujrathi won a few tournaments here and there and Adhiban,Lalit,Sethuram punched above their weight.Negi has quit from professional chess and is joining Stanford this year so that is a loss. The one talent that we must keep an eye on is 14 year old prodigy from Chennai Aravind Chidambaram(pictured above), who continues his meteoric rise and finally became a GM this year. Hailing from a poor family and having lost his father at a very young age he is being guided by his mother and Ramesh(also the coach of our men's team at the Olympiad, on the right in the pic). He didn't have the money to participate in European events until last year but some contribution from a few NGOs in Chennai is keeping him afloat. Hope Anand takes him under his wing and trains him before he decides to quit professional chess. Young Aravind beat many GMs this year including a crushing win against Lativian legend Alexei Shirov. He is someone the world is watching with keen interest and hope Indian/TN govt helps him live his dream and who knows maybe one day fight for the highest prize in the world. His success will be a true Slumdog Millionaire moment and hope he has a great 2015 as well.

[Gollum]

India win World Youth Olympiad. Another 15 yr old Karthikeyan our latest GM. Kudos kids. And BTW according to the coach since there was no veg food available in Hungary the kids ate only Maggi during the fortnight stay there. Look at these kids and learn you morons Ishant and Raina.:finger: