Battling Anand in spotlight as India enjoy bright year

Predictable positive  outcomes and unprecedented successes lifted Indian chess to new highs in 2014, with the highlight being the bronze medal victory at the 41st World Chess Olympiad at Tromso, Norway — the country’s first medal in the 90-year history of the event.

 This was a scintillating performance by a team ranked 19th, and that too without the presence of its top two stars, Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna. Padmini Rout sparkled to grab an individual gold in the women’s section while Krishnan Sasikiran’s rock solid performance secured him an individual silver medal. Parimarjan Negi, S P Sethuraman, B Adhiban and  M R Lalith Babu were the other team members of the team.

The top-seeded Indian team in the World Under-16 Olympiad justified their billing by returning with the gold medal in the last major event of the year.  Interestingly both the Indian teams at the Olympiad were coached by GM R B Ramesh.

Anand faltered in his quest to add a sixth World title to his kitty, losing to defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway at Sochi. The contest was closely fought with Anand having his moments in the 12-game Match which he lost 6.5-4.5, after blundering at a crucial stage.

However, Anand showed spectacular form to win two Grand Slam events, the Bilbao Masters and the London Chess Classic. In the first part of the year, Anand came roaring back to win the gruelling Candidates Tournament at Khanty-Mansyisk to earn the qualifying slot as Challenger to Carlsen.

Carlsen’s hat-trick

The 23-year-old Carlsen scored a magnificient hat-trick by winning world titles in all three formats this year — Classical, Rapid and Blitz. The year also saw the emergence of a new force in the form of Fabiano Caruana whose performances were remarkable indeed, especially his effort at the Sinquefield Cup which catapulted him to second place in the world ranking and helped him cross the Elo rating of 2800.

Alexander Grishchuk of Russia was the other new entrant to the elite Elo 2800-plus club.
The strongest and the highest-ever rated woman player on the planet, Judit Polgar, bid adieu to professional chess at the age of 38 after remaining her sole vigil at the top of the rating list for an amazing and almost unbelievable 25 years.

The undisputed chess queen however retired without contesting a single women’s world title match, preferring to play only in the open section where she has set a record of being the only woman in the world to qualify for the World Championship.

Amongst the teenagers, Aravindh Chithambaram and Murali Karthikeyan completed their GM title requirements at the World Under-16 Olympiad. The duo along with Kumaran Balaji and Diptayan Ghosh formed the team.

The Indian youngsters also showed their potential, bringing home six medals in the World Youth Championships at Durban.