Chennai — The Chess Capital of India
As we celebrate city boy Gukesh's victory, here are a few essential articles to read
Welcome to The Chennai Emailer — 💌 Bringing you original and curated stories of residents, entrepreneurs & businesses who inspire, connect, and uplift Chennai. By Mohammed Rayaan😊
Today’s curation is a 4-5 minute read.
♟️🫅🏻A Coronation of the New King!
Gukesh is youngest world chess champion. The 18-year-old from Chennai beats Ding Liren in the final game; breaks the record held by Garry Kasparov for nearly 4 decades. Read The Hindu.
A legend, made: On D. Gukesh, the world’s youngest chess champion. Gukesh is first among a cohort of young Indian chess geniuses to reach the pinnacle. Read the editorial by The Hindu.
How India’s Gukesh became chess king in a cricket crazy country. Gukesh, a teenager from Chennai, is the youngest chess world champion. Here’s how he got there. Read on Al-Jazeera.
Gukesh Dommaraju: The boy king of chess. With the 18-year-old winning the World Chess Championship, India becomes the only nation besides the Soviet Union to produce multiple world champions. Read the FrontLine.
(Also read: The inside story of how Singapore pulled off the World Chess Championship. ESPN)
♟️❤Chennai’s love affair with Chess
How India’s Chennai mints world-beating chess champions, one move at a time. Read Al-Jazeera.
How Chennai became the chess capital of India. Tamil Nadu has produced more than 30 percent of India’s Grandmasters. Manuel Aaron, Viswanathan Anand and RB Ramesh tell us how and why. Read on Scroll.in
The story of Chess Gurukul: A nursery for India’s brightest prodigies. How Grandmaster RB Ramesh nurtures India’s most promising young chess talents. Read on Scroll.in
Watch a Documentary
From the Archives
When I was with Hindu BusinessLine, the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad was held in our city in 2022. I had the amazing opportunity to interview RB Ramesh, India’s popular Chess coach. He spoke about the challenges faced by new players and what the government can do about it. Read here.
(Also check out “Winning moves: Why are Indians getting so good at chess?”)
During the Chess Olympiad, I curated a list of articles and videos to watch: Watch the opening ceremony here or check out the photos 👉🏾here. 🎨In celebration of the Chess Olympiad, Chennai women created artistic kolams.
📹Watch👇🏽
😍Do you remember this cool video?👇🏽
😮Inspiring: Read this quick profile of a Class IX student who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and is “showing a remarkable flair for the game of chess”. 🤔
Should Chess be a part of the school curriculum? Read here.
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