India's double triumph in Chess Olympiad was not much of a surprise: Vishy Anand

Mumbai, Sep 26 : The chess world may have been surprised by India's double triumph in the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, but it was not much of a surprise for the man who started the chess revolution in India, five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

Anand has represented India in the Olympiad on many occasions in his three-decade-long career being part of strong teams in the 1990s with Pravin Thipsay and Dibyendu Barua and later in the 2000s with the likes of P. Harikrishna, Krishnan Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte. The best finish by a team including Anand at the Olympiad came in 2004 in Clavia, Spain when the Indian team finished sixth in one of the strongest competitions. Anand won a silver medal on the top board.

But last week, a young Indian team comprising D Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and P. Harikrishna claimed India's maiden title in the Olympiad, with a dominant performance, finishing undefeated in 11 rounds in the Open category.

In the Women's section, the Indian team of D. Harika, R. Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Tania Sachdev and Vantika Agrawal came back strongly from a late defeat to Poland in the eighth round to clinch the title with a victory in the final round over Azerbaijan.

But both the performances did not surprise Anand much and the 54-year-old Grandmaster who currently qualifies himself as "semi-retired" said considering the tremendous growth of Indian chess in the last 5-6 years, the two titles were expected.

"I wouldn't have been able to imagine that (when I started playing chess). But you could see that the popularity of the game was growing steadily for several decades. And slowly barrier after barrier is being crossed. And if you look at it from that point, then I think what has happened in the last five years doesn't come as such a big surprise. Though the extent of it, perhaps, or how quickly it happened becomes interesting.

"Just to remind people, we could have won two gold medals in Chennai (which hosted the Olympiad in 2022). The men's gold medal was basically in our hands, literally the last opponent that we would face. We had a winning position and we only needed a draw to clinch it," said Anand of the event in which the India-2 team finished third and took a bronze medal.

In 2022, the women's team was leading and only missed it in the final round.

"In Chennai, I think it would have still had the feeling of a slight accident - a pleasant surprise. Here, by the fourth round, I had the feeling which team was going to stop us. I was just curious to see if some team would manage. And, well, we know the final result, a four-point margin.

"For the women, it was harder. I find that also very impressive because they have a late setback. They were leading after seven or eight rounds, then had this loss (against Poland), then fell a further half point behind (With a draw). And then, to win the Olympiad outright was a great achievement," he said.

He said considering the depth and strength of Indian chess, it is difficult to predict anything.

"So I wouldn't have predicted a lot of the things that started from last year. That we would have three candidates in the men's and two in the women's. Only one was sure, and then subsequently, that one of our players would win the Candidates, that we would then win the Olympiad. So I'm almost not sure whether to be surprised or not," said Anand during an event organised by the Sports Journalists Association of Mumbai in collaboration with Global Chess League on Thursday.

And talked about the tremendous growth in Indian chess since he opened the gates by becoming the first Grandmaster of India in 1987 and the first Indian to win the World Championship in 2000.

Talking about the impact of the Olympiad triumphs, the five-time World Champion said it will trigger tremendous interest in the game with more young talent taking to the game. He said India would need to manage and channel this surge in interest in the dominance of the chess world for many years.