Indian chess players to be trained by Vladimir Kramnik
What's the story
In an interesting development, former world champion and legend Vladimir Kramnik will train six Indian chess players in Geneva from August 14 to 25. The list of Indian players includes young Grandmasters Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh. Iniyan, Arjun Erigaisi, Raunak Sadhwani and Leon Mendonca are also a part of this contingent. This is a big moment for these young players.
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Kramnik on India's young chess players
"I think India has the strongest generation in the world right now, maybe the strongest ever in one country. India has got some really very talented kids with a very big potential of being top players, maybe even World Champions in the future," Kramnik said.
Kramnik
Who is former world champion Vladimir Kramnik?
The 44-year-old Kramnik is a Russian chess Grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess champion from 2000 to 2006. Kramnik was also crowned the undisputed World Chess champion in 2006-07. A successful Chess Olympiad player, Kramnik won six medals in total. He won the Chess World Cup in 2013, held in Norway. In 2019, he announced his retirement as a professional chess player.
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Kramnik wants to share his knowledge with most promising juniors
"I am now retired from chess and not playing competitively anymore, but it means a lot to me that I can share my knowledge with the most promising juniors who can achieve something big in the future," added the Russian chess legend.
Young Grandmasters
Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh are India's youngest Grandmasters
Chennai's Gukesh is India's youngest Grandmaster at 12 years, 7 months and 17 days. He achieved the feat in January this year. Notably, he is also the second youngest person in history to achieve the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March. Prior to Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa had become the world's second youngest Grandmaster at 12 years, 10 months and 13 days.
Our take
Kramnik's training could be a turning point
With Kramnik providing valuable lessons to these chess prodigies, it can be a turning point for them. The Indian chess players have shown promise and the future looks bright for the contingent. Recently, 15-year-old Prithu Gupta became India's 64th Grandmaster after crossing the Elo threshold of 2,500 points. With so much talent and promise on offer, Kramnik's training will only add more substance.