A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

In early 2020, the entire world entered a stage of latency with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. It went on to become a full-fledged pandemic, and people were forced to stay indoors with restricted access. A lot of industries and interests were hit worldwide with everything shifting online.

While the sports industry came to a standstill, the chess world was also similarly rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Offline, over-the-board tournaments stopped completely to an extent that, even the Candidates’ tournament had to be paused, with the tournament poised halfway. However, chess’s USP has been its flexibility and the ability to adapt. The game has survived for several centuries and remains relevant to this day by being moldable according to the change in time and trends, whilst maintaining the integrity of the game by not wavering from its core rules. As soon as the world came to a standstill, chess immediately moved online.

With rising mental tension and restrictions on outdoor activities, people packed inside their four-walled started looking out for various ways to indulge themselves and their kids in mindful practices. This led to an exponential growth in the activity levels of chess-playing servers like chess.com and lichess.org. However, it was not restricted just to the playing platforms. Chess e-learning platform Chessable reported a quadruple increase in its user base from 2020 to 2021. A lot of chess enthusiasts who had lost touch returned to Chess.

Cover of Chess Life magazine during a pandemic

Let us have a look at the key events that got chess to where it stands post-pandemic:

1)The growth of the global chess streaming community

A few years before the pandemic, Twitch and Chesscom entered into a partnership.  It had a modest start with elite players like Hikaru Nakamura streaming over it with around 1000 watching. However, with the pandemic, this viewership increased by almost 10-fold and he hit a following of more than 1 million subscribers on both Twitch and YouTube! Globally, Hikaru, Levy Rozman (Gothamchess), and The Botez sisters were some of the popular content creators who contributed to taking the game to the masses and making it accessible and enjoyable to a whole new set of audiences by creating chess content regularly in a fun and educational way.

Hikaru and Botez Sisters in a fun chess stream

This culminated in the PogChamps event, which involved collaboration between the top chess content creators in the world and the most popular content creators globally. Top chess streamers and titled players went on to coach some of the famous social media content creators that played against each other. In fact, by the third season, the prize pool increased to $100,000 as Chess.com noted how previous PogChamps tournaments, as well as other external events such as the success of The Queen’s Gambit, had led to a dramatic increase in the number of site registrations and daily games played, allowing them to gain several sponsorships, which in turn led to an increased prize pool.

 

2) The growth of the Indian streaming community

IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal were actively involved in popularizing the game of chess in India pre-pandemic by covering all important national and international chess events by being on-site and publishing articles and stories from in and behind the scenes through Chessbase India. However, the pandemic acted like a blessing in disguise for their platform as their viewership and work reached a larger base with their YouTube channel hitting 1M subscribers recently! Sagar Shah started by streaming “Improving Chess” on his channel and with the involvement of star comedians like Samay Raina, Vaibhav Sethia, Biswa Kalyan Rath, the game of chess earned massive reach from a plethora of Indian audiences. It all began with a fun Twitter exchange between GM Vidit Gujrathi and comedians that brought the who’s who of content creation and the comedy industry to the game of chess.

The tweet that ignited the chess fire

 

Samay Raina particularly played a huge role in popularizing the game and bringing more celebrities on board and also helped a lot of elite chess players of India in getting into YouTube streaming.

This led to the creation of an online chess tournament series known as Comedians On Board, in which famous comedians and stars of the country were trained by various Indian Grandmasters. A lot of online fund-raiser chess streams were also organized during the pandemic.

 

         

 

3)The Queen’s Gambit and Online Olympiad

With people and work being confined to laptops and ­­­mobile screens during the pandemic, online subscription services came to the rescue for entertainment and chill. With the release of “The Queen’s Gambit”, a drama series on Netflix, a wide range of audiences from all over the globe was attracted to the game of chess which in turn increased the reach of various chess streams and online tournaments being organized.

While other sports events struggled to function at global levels, Chess emerged as a phoenix with the concept of the Online Chess Olympiad, making sure that an elite-level, world-class event was still organized despite all odds. In India, the concurrent viewership reached 70,000 on YouTube streams and people from all walks of life were glued to their screens and watching matches as if it was cricket or football.

The winners of first Online Olympiad

4)The Magnus Carlsen Effect

Magnus proved to be a champion both on and off the board, by launching various chess events and initiatives under his banner. He began in 2020 with a series of Magnus Carlsen Invitational tournaments online with top world chess players being a part of it and it received massive media attention.

 

Play Magnus Group then came up with the idea of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour which is a series of chess tournaments throughout the year with the semi-finalists competing for the title at the end. One of the most remarkable initiatives is that of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour with the involvement of Judit Polgar and Kramnik along with top juniors of the world. This tournament does not only focus on junior chess talent but also promotes gender equality by giving equal opportunities to junior players across the globe of both genders.

 

Boss Ladies of chess

Chess as a sport has been experiencing a boom in recent times. With the advent of the Queen’s Gambit and popular chess players streaming, the sport has witnessed an exponential rise, in terms of quantity as well as quality. However, despite the increase in the number of chess players overall, women’s participation remains much lower in number, leading to a massive participation gap. In this article, we will look at ten of the best Women chess players of all time, and inspire more girls to pick up the sport!

1. JUDIT POLGAR (2675)

This is the name every chess follower and player knows and never raises a question mark when she makes it to the top of the list of best chess players the world has ever had. She has been the only female chess player to have crossed 2700elo and has defeated 11 (out of a total of 20) World Champions so far. She became a Grandmaster at the age of 15, beating the record of Bobby Fischer to become the youngest-ever grandmaster in chess. She has been a chess prodigy for not just being a top female player in chess history, but also for always choosing to play open events and being part of the Men’s team in European championships and Olympiads along with being a contender for the World Chess Championship in 2005. Judit is also a Guinness record holder for leading the world rankings for more than 25years.

2. VERA MENCHIK (2350)

Vera Menchik was not just the first but also the longest-reigning Women’s World Chess Champion ever. Menchik was believed to be the strongest female chess player in the world before the Second World War. ‘Vera Menchik Club’ includes a list of players who lost against her, members of this club have been notable players like World Champion Max Euwe, Mir Sultan Khan, George Thomas, Samuel Reshevsky Friedrich Sämisch. She was the first ever female to have been inducted into the World Chess Hall Of Fame. In her honor, FIDE has named the gold-winning Women Chess Olympiad team trophy as “Vera Menchik Trophy”

3. HOU YIFAN (2650)

Hou Yifan from China is the World’s No 1 women’s chess player. A prodigy since birth, she broke the record of Judit Polgar and went on to become the youngest female Grandmaster at the age of 14 and is also the youngest Women’s World Chess Champion. Her first international win was marked in 2003 by winning in World Youth Championship in U-10 girls. At a very young age and with a shorter active career than her counterparts (since she is semi-retired), she has already been the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix for consecutive three years.

4. MAIA CHIBURDANIDZE (2500)

Hailing from Georgia, she was the second woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE. She played in 15 Olympiads until 2008 and was a part of the gold-winning team nine times, silver thrice and bronze once. She defeated her predecessor Gaprindashvili in 1978 to become the Women’s World Champion and defended her title for fourteen years. Notably, she was the first female player ever who paved her way to the list of FIDE Top 50-rated players.

5. NONA GAPRINDASHVILI (2268)

Nona remains to be one of the most historic female chess players in the world as she was the pioneer and the first ever female to be awarded the title of Grandmaster. Gaprindashvili has carved a legacy of her own by being The Women’s World Champion for 16years (2^nd longest), the Soviet Women’s World Championship, and European Women’s Senior Championship. She is the only women’s world champion to have also successfully won and defended her title of Women’s World Senior Championship. Since 1997, Gaprindashvili Cup is awarded in the Chess Olympiad to the nation with the best overall performance in the open and women’s sections. She has played in 12 Olympiads and her team has won 11 gold medals and one silver. She has won eight individual golds as well.

6. XIE JUN (2574)

Xie was the first woman and overall second player from China to become a Grandmaster and the first ever from Asia to become a Women’s World Champion by breaking the four-decade-long supremacy of the Soviet Union by defeating Chiburdanidze. She is among the very few women players to have regained her World Championship title back after losing it.

7. ANNA MUZYCHUK (2526)

Anna Muzychuk is a household name in Ukraine for being a chess prodigy. She’s the only player besides Magnus Carlsen and Susan Polgar to have won World Rapid and World Blitz championships in the same year. She has won two Women’s World Blitz Chess Championships and one Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship. She won European Youth Chess Championship six times, she has also been a World Youth Champion and World Junior Champion in her age category. Soon after she crossed

2600, she also reached her career best and was the second-highest woman in ratings behind Judit for short time. She has been part of the Ukraine Team in four Olympiads and medalled in all of them, two bronze, and one silver, and then went on to win a gold in the latest 44^th Olympiad.

8. PIA CRAMLING (2468)

This 59-year young lady happens to be the only women chess grandmaster in any Scandinavian country. While almost all of her female counterparts are no more active in the chess scene, Pia chooses to still show up over the board and play exceptionally. Her game just like herself has aged like fine wine. In 1984, she was ranked as the no.1 female chess player in the world. Her accolades include being a two-time winner at the Women’s European Individual Chess Championship and six team golds in European Club Cup for Women. The most notable part about Pia is that she debuted in the Chess Olympiad 44years back and began playing for Sweden in the open section and later on in Sweden Women’s Team. Including the latest Olympiad results, Pia has won three individual gold medals in the Olympiad and a total of nine individual medals so far.

9. ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK (2521)

While Kosteniuk is an exceptional chess player, she is also a chess streamer, author, model, and chess educator. She’s the current Women’s World Rapid Chess Champion. She has been Women’s World Chess Champion in 2008 by beating prodigy Hou Yifan. She was crowned several times as Russian Women’s Chess Champion, and European Women’s Chess Champion and has also won European Youth and World Youth Chess Championship in her age categories as a child. She has also been the first woman to have won the men’s Swiss Chess Championship in 2013. Kosteniuk has been part of the gold-winning Russian Women’s teams in three Chess Olympiads, five European Team Chess Championships, and the Women’s Team Chess Championship once.

10. KONERU HUMPY (2574)

An Indian chess prodigy, Humpy was the first woman in India to become a grandmaster at the tender age of 15! Humpy has made two World Youth Chess Championship titles and one World Girls Junior Championship title to her name from her childhood. Humpy has been a perennial first runner-up in FIDE Women’s Grand Prix till 2021. She was part of the Gold medal-winning team at the Online FIDE Chess Olympiad, in 2020 and the bronze-winning team in the 2021 edition. In the 2022 Chess Olympiad at Chennai, she was part of the Indian Women’s A team winning bronze. Humpy has proved herself across all formats by being the Women’s Rapid World Champion in 2019. She has also been a British Women’s Champion, Asian Individual Women’s Champion, and Indian Women’s Champion.