Overjoyed by India's remarkable dual triumph at the Chess Olympiad, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said that while this marks a promising beginning, there is still much work to be done for women's chess in the country.
India scripted history on Sunday as both its men's and women's teams secured their first-ever titles, achieving a remarkable clean sweep of gold medals at the Chess Olympiad.
But while in recent times, the men's game has surged in popularity with young Indian talents like R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh making waves on the world stage, in contrast, the women's game has struggled to match this trajectory.
"It's a very good beginning. I think still a long way to go because we must continuously keep progressing," Anand told PTI, at the sidelines of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League.
"And more important, get more and more girls to play and I think exactly this result will inspire more girls to play, and that is the hope," he added.
The 54-year-old chess icon who has inspired the current young crop of chess players creating a splash on the global stage was delighted to witness history being created by them.
"First of all that, great pride that it had happened. It's not like the result caught me by surprise, It had been the case for a couple of hours already, so you prepare yourself." "But you're happy to suddenly realize that you're double Olympiad champion, I know all of them for many, many years, and there's also the feeling of being with friends who had great success." "I personally enjoyed being there. I enjoyed listening to the anthems two times. And I knew that the whole world kind of took notice of India's performance," he added.
Although India's performance at the Olympiad is commendable, Anand warned that other teams will analyze their results and return even stronger.
"Depending on which metric you use, you can say India is number one or number two or number three maximum," he said when asked how long will it take for India to reach the level of Russia, USA and China.
"But look, every country goes back and learns lessons and so the other teams will take their disappointment, they'll go back and they'll come back stronger.
"That's how sport is. I don't think success is assured for us. But we've got fantastic players who are going to compete for the best events for the next decade at least.
Anand feels that to continue the recent success momentum of chess in the country, India must tap into the talent at the grassroot level.
"First, grow the game. Increase the base of the pyramid, so to speak. And support players at all levels. Events like the Global Chess League play a big part in that because they give a lot of people opportunities.
"Unexpectedly, you might play a much bigger role than you expected. Teams victory, all these things will boost. But we want many more things like that to happen," he added.
Anand will be in action in the Global Chess League from October 3 to 12 in London where he will turn out for the Ganges Grandmasters.
Talking about the league he said "I enjoyed the first league very much and I'm looking forward to the second. I've played in London many, many times and I'm quite excited about it. What do I think will be the result? Obviously, I hope that we will first qualify for the final and then win it."
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