As the end of 2023 approached, two of India’s top prodigies, Gukesh Dommaraju and Arjun Erigaisi, were getting increasingly despondent. Their chance of qualifying for the Candidates tournament — an event where eight players fight it out for the right to challenge the world champion — were starting to seem impossible with the calendar running out of tournaments. The third member of India’s golden generation — Praggnanandhaa — had already secured his place as had Vidit Gujrathi.
And then, the Chennai Grand Masters event made an appearance almost out of thin air, offering not just Gukesh and Arjun, but other players like Parham Maghsoodloo too, a chance to qualify for the Candidates. It was a chance that Gukesh seized, booking a spot in the Candidates and then winning the World Championship barely a year later in Singapore.
The Chennai Grand Masters tournament has since then become a permanent fixture of the Indian chess scene which until 2023 only had one showpiece annual event that attracted top names: the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz Kolkata.
The event is fittingly held in the spiritual home of Indian chess, Chennai, which has given the sport two world champions in the form of Viswanathan Anand and Gukesh. Many strong players like Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali besides stellar coaches like RB Ramesh, Vishnu Prasanna and Srinath Narayanan also call the city home. Despite the stockpile of chess talent in Chennai, the city has not hosted too many elite chess tournaments barring the Anand vs Magnus Carlsen World Chess Championship battle in 2013 and the prestigious Chess Olympiad in 2022 which saw participants from 200 countries.
Chennai Grand Masters, in only its third year, has ambitious plans in a sport where a few decades ago many chess events with long traditions downed shutters.
“We hope the Chennai tournament will become a permanent fixture in the calendar, but we are still figuring that part out,” says grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, who has transitioned to tournament director for the event. “It’s moving strongly towards being a permanent fixture in the calendar and a traditional annual tournament. Like a Wijk aan Zee (the Tata Steel Chess tournament held in the Dutch village of Wijk aan Zee). Wijk Aan Zee has a very robust history. It has been around for almost a hundred years, having survived two World Wars, the COVID-19 pandemic. In chess, we have seen many tournaments come and go. Linares, Dortmund are among many traditional tournaments which couldn’t sustain over the years. But we certainly do hope that this will be a Tata Steel-like tournament, a Wijk Aan Zee of sorts.”
This year, the Chennai event will see 20 players competing. While the main field will see the likes of GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Anish Giri, GM Vincent Keymer, GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Nihal Sarin, GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM Jorden van Foreest, GM Awonder Liang, GM Ray Robson and GM Pranav Venkatesh competing, the Challengers event will see players like GM Abhimanyu Puranik, GM Adhiban Baskaran, GM Harika Dronavalli, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, GM Pranesh M, GM Leon Luke Mendonca, GM Aryan Chopra, GM Diptayan Ghosh, GM Iniyan P and IM Harshavardhan GB in the fray.
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This year, the Chennai Grand Masters has been brought forward to August rather than its usual window at the end of the year. Srinath points at the upcoming FIDE World Cup in India later this year as a reason the event was brought forward. Srinath expressed hope that in coming editions, the event could feature the two world-beaters from Chennai: Gukesh and Pragg. But Gukesh, the reigning world champion, will turn out at the St Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour, from August 10 to 15.
“Ideally, we would have loved to have Gukesh and Pragg playing. But this year, we had to clash our event with the Grand Chess Tour because the calendar was insanely full. And we simply didn’t get any free dates. But in the future, whenever they are available, we would certainly love to have them. And hopefully, we can schedule it at a time when it doesn’t clash with another major event in the future years,” said Srinath.
Srinath points at just how packed the chess calendar is this year, with new events like Checkmate: USA vs India, Esports World Cup and Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour events jostling for a window with annual fixtures like Norway Chess, Tata Steel, GCT events, St Louis Rapid and Blitz, Sinquefield Cup and popular leagues like the Spanish League and the Turkish League. Adding to this condensed mix are FIDE events like the World Cup, to be hosted by India, and the Grand Swiss, both of which offer Candidates spots.
“This year in particular, it was very challenging (to find a window to hold the event in). You will see events happening parallelly or right one after another,” he says.
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Srinath does add that for the organisers, the biggest pleasure is giving the next in line players from India — names like Pranav Venkatesh, Pranesh M and Iniyan P — a platform to compete in.
“Over the last two years, we have already seen a tradition where a young talented player goes on to get world-class recognition after winning here. Happened with Gukesh in 2023, happened with Aravindh Chithambaram also. Although Aravindh was improving substantially even before winning the Chennai event, the title helped him get so many invitations across the world. Similarly, we hope to keep unearthing more talents,” says Srinath.
