An ongoing silent revolution in India
I started following chess during the end of the seventies. At that time, there was no Grandmaster (GM) in India. At the Alekhine Chess Club, Gorki Sadan, Calcutta (now Kolkata), a young boy of 10–11 (the present writer) used to stare with awe at the Russian GMs who used to come to participate in the annual tournaments. Indian International Masters (IM) Manuel Aaron, Raja Ravishekhar, Lanka Ravi, etc. used to participate. I must mention that in that tournament, I first saw Dibyendu Barua, the chess prodigy from Bengal, who was only one year senior to me. At that time many used to predict that Dibyendu Barua would be India's first GM.But, a Tamil boy named Vishwanathan Anand was preparing at Philippines to storm the world of chess. And he did it. He became the first GM from India, Barua being the second. At that time, I used to have a phantasy. I watched that in the chess championships, almost all the top two players were of Russian origin. As for example, the chess finals were being played between Karpov and Korchnoy and later Karpov and Kasparov. Almost 7–8 out of the first 10 ELO/FIDE-rating players were of Russian origin.
I used to fantasize that one day would come when the world chess finals will be played between two Indian super-Grand Masters.
Since then (mid-nineties), India has had a silent chess revolution. One after another male and female GMs are coming out from India every year. Nobody in India is now keeping track about the IMs anymore.
Super-GM V. Anand's reign is now almost over after more than 30 years. He has now handed over the baton to three very young super-GMs from India: Arjun Erigaisi , D. Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa.
All three are very young, energetic and although they have reached at the top of the chess world, they are still very eager to learn.
I am again fantasizing. Very soon we will definitely watch the world chess championship final between two Indians, out of these three greats: D. Gukesh (present FIDE rating: 2783), R. Praggnanandhaa (present FIDE rating: 2737) and Arjun Erigaisi (present FIDE rating: 2801).
