The only sport to thrive during the forgettable 2020 was surprisingly the game of 64 squares. Chess’s growth this year was so huge that it took everyone by surprise. Being a game which can be played online, chess had a win-win situation when everyone was cooped up in their rooms. So when other sports like football, NBA and cricket were counting the losses, chess became the favourite pandemic pastime.

“Chess suffered much less than other sports thanks mainly to online matches and streaming. While other sports struggled for four-five months during the lockdown all over the world, chess due to its online presence had an astounding presence.

“It’s not that chess was never played or followed online. Online chess was always there. Just that the game got turbo-charged as it caught the imagination of millions,” five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand told The Telegraph from Chennai.

Anand was spot-on. For example, Sudakshina Basu, a Class VII student of Loreto Day School, Bowbazar, was hunched over her laptop, following Wesley So ruining world champion Magnus Carlsen’s birthday in Champions Chess Tour, jotting down notes while every move was being dissected by an expert.

“I have seen Carlsen in flesh when he came to Calcutta in November 2019. That was a different experience sitting in the auditorium watching world’s No. 1 chess player. During the pandemic, when we couldn’t go for over-the-board practice, following the game on Chessbase India was very helpful,” Sudakshina, who practises at the Calcutta Chess Academy, said.

Glut of platforms

When India played Russia in the Fide Online Chess Olympiad final, as many as 60,000 people logged in from India alone. Almost a million watched it around the world.

“It’s crazy. The response was mind blowing,” said stand-up comedian Samay Raina whose YouTube channel, along with Chessbase India beamed the matches live.

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand were the guest commentators and fans just lapped it up.

Raina, who started streaming only in March, already has over 500k followers on his platform and says sky is the limit in terms of financial benefits.

“My dream is to have an IPL-style Chess League,” the 23-year-old said. He even had Anand on his platform to be part of a charity event.

Hikaru Nakamura, world’s No. 1 blitz player, was already streaming on Twitch for a couple of years and now in Indian Grandmasters like Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Vidit Gujrathi, Baskaran Adiban and Srinath Narayan have their own platforms on YouTube.

Even the once reticent Anand is very much active on the digital world. Whether teaching wife Aruna or lunching his own WestBridge Anand Chess Academy, the face of Indian chess keeps himself busy.

“Even if you engage people for an hour, it’s a huge thing. Chess is cerebral as well as an addictive game.

“But unlike football where you can enjoy a match without knowing the nuances of, say the off-side rule, here you have to know the rules.

“The streaming platforms are making the game more consumable and accessible to all and sundry,” Surya Sekhar said.

Surya, who has a following of around 40,000, began his new innings inviting world-class players to analyse different matches. “It is a big hit,” he said.

Now buoyed by the game’s growing popularity, Surya, along with GMs RB Ramesh and Magesh Chandran Panchanathan, will be starting an online training school.

Magnus Carlsen Shutterstock

The Queen’s Gambit impact

When Netflix released a mini-series titled The Queen’s Gambit, few would have thought that it have such an impact. Beginning in the mid-1950s and proceeding into the 1960s, The Queen’s Gambit follows the life of an orphaned chess prodigy as she rises to the top of the chess world while struggling with drug and alcohol dependency.

“A lot of people started following the game, after watching the series,” Anand said. “In fact, the series has raised the bar veryhigh. I hope my biopic will be better than The Queen’s Gambit,” he said, laughing.

Filmmaker Aanand L Rai, of Tanu Weds Manu fame, will direct the biopic on the maestro.

“It’s a game-changer. More and more women are getting hooked onto chess,” Raina said.

“The surge in sport has a lot to do with the series also,” was Surya’s take.

What’s in store

Amidst all the good things, there is also a growing fear that streaming and online competitions may result in the untimely death of the classical variation. Anand, though, begs to differ.

“No way. That’s going to stay. Maybe it had 70 per cent presence before lockdown, now I would say classical chess is 55-60 per cent.”

There is also one school of thought which holds that when normality returns, the popularity of the online version may wane.

“I do not think so. From here it’s only way forward. People are following the game seriously. There is no doubt on that,” Surya said.

That’s for sure. Only on Thursday, India got their 67th GM in Goa’s Leon Mendonca. The 14-year-old was stranded in Europe for 10 months and has now won his final norm at the Vergani Cup in Italy.