It Takes a City to Raise a Chess Player

Chennai is the best example of an entire community coming together to mentor the next generation

The story so far: After D Gukesh became the world's youngest champion, we put out an Instagram post on how one Chennai institution, Velammal Vidyalaya, has produced 16 Indian Grandmasters. You can read it over here.

But Velammal is able to do so because Chennai has a long history of nurturing chess and young talent.

The story of Chennai chess starts in Russia. Vladimir Lenin ensured chess survived and thrived after the Russian Revolution in 1923 even though it was a Romanov Tsarist tradition. The Soviets set up free chess clubs all over their country. By the 1970s, the Soviet Union had helped India in a couple of wars on physical battlefields. Now, they helped India in the chess battlefield (a game invented by India in 600 CE).

The 1970s were the height of the Cold War. The Soviets began setting up chess clubs in India as a form of soft power. One such club was the Tal Chess Club in Chennai (named after Soviet Champion Mikhail Tal). Why Chennai? Because of Manuel Aaron, an Indian Bank employee.

Aaron was the man who revived Chess in India. He was the first International Master from India in 1961. The Soviets made Aaron the President of the Tal Chess Club. And, no one has done more for chess than Aaron (except maybe Viswanathan Anand now), first as a player and then as an administrator.

50-60 years back, chess was a hobby and not a profession. Aaron, along with Raja Ravishekhar, T.N. Parameswaran, K. Murugan (in Tamil Nadu), and Varghese Koshy, Pravin Thipsay, Dibyendu Barua (rest of India), continued to play chess and mentor young players.

In 1988, one player that Aaron had mentored became a grandmaster: Viswanathan Anand. Most of us know his story.

The Tal Chess Club in Chennai (mentioned in the Insta post) doesn’t exist now. But something called as Chess Gurukul does. This is the institute that has given India R Praggnanandhaa, who became the world’s second-youngest grandmaster at the age of 12. He is 18 today. In fact, since its inception in 2008, it has produced around 20 grandmasters. Praggnanandhaa’s sister, Vaishali is among them.

Chess Gurukul was founded by RB Ramesh and his wife Aarthie Ramaswamy. Ramesh, a grandmaster himself, was mentored by Aaron. This Economic Times article documents students from Indore and London coming to Chennai to learn under Ramesh and Aarthie (also a grandmaster).

But How Did it All Start?

In the 1950s and 60s, formal chess clubs were nonexistent. The chess scene thrived in pockets of passion. Aaron speaks of old chess battles played out in the battlegrounds of Ramani Press in Mylapore, YMCA, and even the Egmore hockey stadium lawns.

The state and district associations kindled competitive flames with organized matches, nourishing local talents. Then, city schools stepped in, conducting weekend tournaments that ignited youthful passions. Legends like N Mahalingam, head of the Sakthi conglomerate and chess aficionado, generously backed the game. He rewarded performance and incentivized International Masters.

Of course, you can’t discount Aaron himself. A chess pioneer who established the Tal Chess Club at the Soviet Cultural Centre in 1972, he lit a spark. His Soviet landlord didn’t charge rent. Instead, they offered him free books and flew down chess players to boost participation in India. Aaron, a weekly lecturer on chess novelties, would encounter a persistent 9-year-old—Viswanathan Anand. Little did he know that this boy would evolve into India's renowned chess luminary, Viswanathan Anand.

Chess wasn't just a game; it was a culture ignited by the likes of Aaron and Anand, one move at a time. Bharat Subramaniyam, who at 14 years old became a grandmaster in 2022, recollects how Anand invited him to his home. That boosted his confidence.

Chess Clubs, Cigarettes and A Welcome All Attitude

According to this article by fiftytwo.in, “The earliest club in Chennai was probably Mylapore’s Solar Chess Club, established in the 1920s by K. S. Subramanya Iyer. … Soon after, Tal’s counterparts, also named after Soviet GMs, came up in the other metros. Mumbai and Delhi had the Botvinnik Club. Kolkata got the Alekhine.”

But Chennai had something extra. It had chess players who went out of their way to mentor anyone who wanted to play chess. Consider this snippet from the article when it talks about the T Nagar Chess Academy located in KK Nagar in South Chennai. “A. L. Kasi, the 51-year-old founder of the academy, is a clerk in the postal department. The bearded and affable 42-year-old Srinivasa Rangan is a coach at the academy. “Kasi was an international rated player, he achieved a maximum rating of 2,220. He started this chess club because he was inspired by this old man in T. Nagar called Dakshinamoorthy Sir,” Rangan told me. “We started it in T. Nagar but now we have three branches and get about 120 students every year.”

““In the beginning, in 1999, we were using a small room inside the Subbulakshmi School in T. Nagar. The space was very tight and, also, many of us smoked, so the school authorities kicked us out after some time,” Rangan told me. “We wanted to continue the tradition and the only non-smoking chess players were children, so we started these coaching centres.”

“There was one clock to play the ‘lightning’ format at Dakshinamoorthy Sir’s house, Rangan recalled. You had to win to stay at the table. Last-minute moves added to the thrill of the ticking clock. “It was almost like a T20 match. Even though 30 people used to come every day and play on the terrace, Sir’s family used to give tea, coffee for everyone.””

The Chennai Chess Mafia

Calling the Chennai Chess fraternity Mafia is a joke. They are anything but. Most of the grandmasters here are enthusiasts and players first, and grandmasters later. From all the interviews I have read, seen, and taken (over 15 years back), the fraternity looks out for each other and has each other’s backs.

Individuals, schools, and companies, everyone steps in to hone chess skills. Chennai is famous for prioritizing education for its students over sports. But chess, since it’s an intellectual game, lets Chennai parents to allows their children to play it.

However, the last few years have seen a shift in parents’ attitudes toward chess. Earlier, parents would introduce their kids to the sport, and if children liked it and got ambitious, parents would support them. Case in point: Vaishali and Pragg. Vaishali was watching a lot of TV and her parents introduced her to chess as a diversion. She loved it. Then Pragg saw her play at home and he fell in love with it, too. No parental pressure.

Ramesh says, “Earlier, children would be introduced to the game, they would become ambitious and parents would support them. But today, parents expect children to fulfil their ambitions though the child might not be keen. So, for instance, if Pragg became an IM at the age of 10, they want their child to be an IM at the age of 9.”

Many parents insist on exclusive one-on-one sessions with Grandmaster (GM) coaches. If a particular coach declines, individuals promptly scout for an alternative who is amenable. While personal tutelage under a GM might command a fee of around Rs 2,500-3,500 per hour, parents readily bear the expense, sometimes even beyond their means. The result? Apprehensive children who are afraid to take risks. Fear of parental expectations looms large. This stifles their creative play, leaving them wary of taking risks and tethered to a survival strategy.

In 2013, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha in August 2011 announced the “7 to 17 program” to take chess to all the government schools in Tamil Nadu among children aged 7 to 17. In 2013, she brought the World Chess Championships 2013 to Chennai, where Magnus Carlsen defeated Vishwanathan Anand to win the title.

And recently, D Gukesh became the world's youngest champion.

If you can, please read all the below mentioned sources. It's full of history and lovely anecdotes.

Sources:

1. ​The Economic Times​
2. ​Fiftytwo.in​
3. ​Manuel Aaron's interview in Chessbase.com​

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Team Reading Room