R.B. Ramesh interview: ‘Young chess players believe they can be the best’

At the second edition of the Chennai Grandmasters classical chess tournament, R.B. Ramesh spoke about whether the current crop of talented young Indian chess players are the country’s best ever, what sets apart the present batch, and what could be done to sustain India’s dominance in chess. Excerpts:

This tournament has seemingly become an annual fixture now. How excited are you seeing a tournament like this being organised?

You are going to get at least equal or higher-rated opponents. That’s very good for our Indian players, especially for the young players. And having the Challenger section added, it’s a very good idea. So, I congratulate Srinath (Srinath Narayanan, tournament director), MGD1 group, and the Tamil Nadu government for supporting this initiative.

Because of this, Gukesh got a chance to qualify for the Candidates (2024). And this year, Arjun (Erigaisi) has crossed 2800. So, a very good initiative.

Considering the depth and strength of the Indian chess now, are you surprised that you don’t see tournaments like this more often?

I remember, probably 20 years ago, I posted on Facebook that we need such tournaments. I mean when I was a kid, we had this need, and we still have this need. This, is at least something. Maybe, we have met 10% of what is actually required. The players are doing their part by performance. So, it’s time for others to pitch in as well and play their role. We need more organisers taking such initiatives. We need more corporates and State governments to pitch in and organise tournaments in respective States. We need such tournaments. Probably, three or four more in other States.

Arjun Erigaisi has become only the second Indian to cross the 2800 Elo mark and risen to World No. 2 in the live ratings. What are your thoughts on how he’s evolved as a chess player?

Till the pandemic, the world did not know who Arjun Erigaisi was. And during the pandemic, he played many online tournaments and did well. But even then, it was dismissed as (performances in) online tournaments. Then, after the pandemic, both he and Gukesh have risen very rapidly.

So, phenomenal rise and fantastic talent. More importantly, more than talent, it’s his attitude that I appreciate and like very much.

He believes in himself, (has) very less self-doubts, and he believes he can beat any player in the World! It’s very important to have that kind of belief firmly implanted in your mind. He must be extremely hard-working as well. Very good asset for India. At least, for a couple of decades, I’m sure he will be at the top.

As a chess trainer, what do you think is remarkable about him?

I’ve not worked with him personally. But I know him only from his performance and his games. So, he takes a lot of risk to play for the win.

Most players, when they rise to the top, at some point, they could get that feeling of satisfaction setting in. And then, you might start believing like you have achieved your peak. Because, you suddenly start making more money, you start getting more attention from the media and the public.

All this can have a dampening effect on your motivations and ambitions. But that is not the case with him. He’s able to deal with all this in a matured way. He doesn’t get carried away by these things. And that keeps him hungry. That is very important. Once you feel your hunger is satisfied, the brakes are already on.

So, I just wish he will remain this way and hopefully beat (surpass) Magnus’ (Magnus Carlsen’s) highest rating (2882). I think that’s what this youngster should keep as a target, not the World Championship. Because, that (Carlsen’s peak rating) is very much possible within their reach now. So, it’s time to raise the bar higher.

With the emergence of so many talented young chess players, do you think this is the best crop we’ve ever had?

We now have many top-10s from India. So, obviously this is the best crop, but it should not be the best crop in the future as well.

If you see all these players who are doing well now, they did not start doing well all of a sudden. A lot of hard work has been happening in the last one decade for these kids. So, that should be an ongoing process.

What mistake most countries did, or almost all countries in the World did, is when they got one good crop, they felt like they had the golden goose. And you were just expecting a golden egg every day. You ignore the basics.

We should not go the same path. Because, all these players did not come up because of the system. They came up despite the system. And the system is still the same. So, whatever issues were there 20-30 years ago, most of the issues are still very much there. We have to start addressing those issues.

There aren’t many good tournaments in India. Most of the tournaments are with very high participation in terms of numbers. Numerically, you will get a lot of players participating. But that is the worst way to organise a tournament. You need to have lesser number of players, but good-quality players. That is a good environment for players to grow. You don’t grow by playing against weaker opposition.

You need to play stronger and stronger opposition to grow faster. Such tournaments are not there in India. I don’t even remember one tournament. This tournament is there. But we need open tournaments as well, where the minimum rating should be at least 2200. So, players below 2200 should not be able to participate. And if we have around 10 tournaments like that in India, or at least 6 tournaments in a year, then our players don’t have to travel to Europe all the time.

If you ask all these players who are playing here in the Challengers and Masters, when was the last time they played in India, they really have to say, ‘Maybe, five or eight years ago.’ So, they don’t play in India at all. We can’t see Indian top players playing in India. That’s not happening at all. That’s a sad scenario.

And also, the training opportunities. Now, we have a lot of good coaches in many parts of the country. But everyone is having their own academies and clubs. They are working with a few children. And there is no way a child who’s not within the nearby geographical location of the coach, will have access to quality training.

Despite the online coaching available, it’s good to work in person with the trainers. So, we have to create a system where talented young children are identified at the right time, and good training facilities are provided to them so that they’re able to evolve faster. And also have good, strong open tournaments. I think both these are very much missing currently. And if these two issues are addressed, I think this will not be the last crop.

What sets the current batch of players apart from their predecessors?

I think this generation – I’m talking about Arjun, Pragg (Praggnanandhaa), Gukesh, all these kids – they are believing in themselves. They believe they can be the best.

So, that’s the main difference. Earlier generations had doubts because of various constraints – lack of training, infrastructure, participation in good tournaments and so on.

Things started getting better and better with each generation. I think a few turning points are like, both Pragg and Gukesh, they became the World’s youngest International Masters in a matter of few months.

Pragg did it at the age of 10. He was the youngest to become an International Master from India. And I think that was what gave that generation (the belief) that I can be the best in the World.

And within a few months, Gukesh broke that record. Then in a couple of years, Pragg became the World’s second youngest Grand Master at the age of 12. And then, Gukesh broke that record in a few months, and so on.

So, at a very young age, these two, they did some incredibly difficult things. They broke many barriers. And that gave a lot of confidence to that generation. Now, the younger generation are dreaming like I should break Gukesh’s record and so on. So, they have shown the way that it’s possible for Indians to do this.

What are your thoughts on the World Championship match between Gukesh and Ding Liren?

The match may not last the full distance. We may most likely have the youngest World champion in less than a month.

Obviously, there has been a boom in chess in India. You see a lot of players playing professionally. We have grown as a chess-playing nation and even become a superpower. Even earlier, Viswanathan Anand became an icon and because of him chess attained a better status in India, but this boom now is something else, right? So, If you can shortly tell me what factors have contributed to it…

I think it didn’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual evolution. A lot of things were contributing for us to have reached where we are now.

One good thing we’ve done is that we’ve had age category tournaments regularly every year. Like, u-8, 10, 12, 14, and so on. We have age category tournaments for both boys and girls separately.

We have the District championships, State championships, and National championships. We have this qualification process. This is not happening all around the world. So, that is one contributing factor.

And I remember that 2014 was an important year, because India won six medals in the World Youth Championship.

At that time, Russia got three medals in all. So, that was a very important turning point. Because, we knew that among the young chess-playing population, India was doing very well. And all those children who won medals, they are all very strong players now, achieving big things at a young age.

We have many academies and clubs where children are able to train regularly with good coaches. So now, more training possibilities are there.

And the other thing is, earlier, till some point, if you become an International Master, you used to get jobs in banks and Railways. So, you had some financial security. Because, most chess players, if they are to be good, it has to be at the cost of education. You are not going to school every day. Many are not going to universities and so on. If they don’t succeed as a player, then their future will be a question mark. So, we had the public sectors like banks and Railways earlier giving jobs, but they were very low-paying jobs.

And then, there came the oil sector, which was very high-paying compared to the existing standards. During that generation, most of the top players like Koneru Humpy, [Dronavalli] Harika, Sasikiran, [Surya Shekhar] Ganguly and so on, they all got jobs in the oil sector. So, that gave some kind of respectability and security for young players to take up chess.

Now, that era is over. Players are not looking for a job anymore. They are trying to be professionals, make a living out of chess. And there are other avenues opening up. You can become an organiser. You can become a streamer. You can be an influencer, write books, do chessable video courses, and so on. You can become arbiters and coaches.

There is not much point playing to make a living if you are not very strong. Financially, it doesn’t make sense to be a player. So, those who realise they cannot become very top players, are becoming coaches and so on.

We have more coaches now who are very young. And if they do a good job now, we will have the next crop coming in, because there are more good coaches available. So, I hope that is also one reason.

And mainly, the confidence. The confidence of Indian players is at its peak. The young players believe they can beat anyone, that they can be the best. We’ve shown in the Olympiad and numerous other tournaments.

And now, we can see that the Tamil Nadu government sponsored the Olympiad last year. They have added a Challengers section (to the Chennai Grandmasters) as well now. We have the Global Chess League. Mahindra has put in the money. So, more private sponsors are coming into chess, and we have State governments as well. Some State governments are putting the money in chess. So, all the factors are contributing together, I would say.

If Gukesh does win the title and with the other sort of talents that India has, do you think that in the immediate future there would be an Indian-versus-Indian World Championship match?

There’s a good chance that in the future two Indians will be playing for the World Championship. Just like it happened in the Soviet era times. Most of the World champions are from the Soviet era times. They had a total domination. But they had reasons for total domination.

Most of the countries were not interested in chess. There was no internet. So, most of the learnings were kept secret, and most of it was in Russian language. And most of the important tournaments were happening in Russia, and so on.

But now, it’s more democratised. Like, in many countries, tournaments are happening in all languages. You can get chess literature, trainers, access to tournaments.

Everything is available for everyone. And despite all that, one important quality — I work with a lot of US and European kids as well — the Indians have is that we still have that hard-working ability alive in us. And I just hope the subsequent generations will not lose it.

Because, what usually happens is, as the society becomes rich economically and most comforts are available, the subsequent generations will not feel the motivation to strain themselves too much. They want to have a comfortable life. So, for them, every small thing which will require a bit more effort becomes strenuous and they don’t want to do it. This is what’s happening in other economically rich societies.

The children, they simply don’t want to strain themselves. And that is what is helping India. We are not rich yet. We are not very poor yet. So, we are very hungry. I believe for the next 10-20 years, we will have this hard-working ability still there in Indian standards. And we have to take maximum advantage of it.