Indian chess needs corporate support: Ideal chance for firms to engage

Last Sunday, India scripted history as both its men’s and women’s teams clinched maiden golds at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. The men’s team defeated Slovenia after D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Praggnanandhaa won their respective matches in the 11th and final round. The women’s team beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to clinch the title. India had earlier come close, but never secured a top podium finish. The men had previously won two bronzes — in 2014 and 2022, while the women had won a bronze in the 2022 edition in Chennai. But this time around, thankfully, it was gold all the way.

The men’s contingent ended up with a remarkable 21 points out of a possible 22. They conceded just a lone 2-2 draw to Uzbekistan while beating all their other opponents. The Indian women’s team then obtained a rare double gold for the country as they scored an emphatic final round victory against Azerbaijan.

India has rarely been No 1 globally in any game or sport, bar cricket (hockey is re-emerging after decades in the dumps, but that supremacy is still very iffy). So, it is heartening to see ourselves emerge as world beaters in chess.

The inevitable din that is building up after the Olympiad victory is whether we are doing enough for our newly minted chess champions? For their training? For their global match participation? For their travel? For their well-being?  As of September 2024, there are 85 Grandmasters (GM) in India; India also has 124 International Masters (IM). And we have 23 Woman Grandmasters (WGM); plus 42 Woman International Masters (WIM). That’s a pretty impressive talent pool, for sure.

As of this week, in the world “live ratings” for Classical Chess, 33-year-old Magnus Carlsen leads with a score of 2,830.8. Hikaru Nakamura (36) follows in second with 2,802. India’s Arjun Erigaisi (21) ranks third with 2,797.2, while D Gukesh (18) holds fifth place with 2,794.1. Viswanathan  Anand (54), who no longer actively plays, is ranked 10th. R Praggnanandhaa (19) ranks 12th with 2,746.3, and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (29) is in 22nd place with 2,726.0, just one rank below world champion Liren Ding (31), who has a score of 2738.9. Indians are, therefore, fairly well-placed in the global chess rankings.

Sponsorship monies are starting to trickle in, albeit slowly (even hesitantly). The Pravaha Foundation has committed Rs 2 crore over two years to support six exceptional women players — Savitha Shri Baskar, Shubhi Gupta, Vantika Agrawal, Saparya Ghosh, Charvi Anilkumar and A R  Ilamparthi. GM Arjun Erigaisi has signed a $1.5 million five-year sponsorship deal with Singapore-based quantitative trading firm Quantbox. Praggnanandhaa  has recently got the backing of the Adanis. D Gukesh entered into an exclusive sponsorship agreement with WestBridge Capital for five years, and is now represented by talent agency FairPlay Sports. Viswanathan  Anand in his heyday was a very visible brand ambassador of NIIT. He also went on to endorse other brands like Subway, Chess.com, Horlicks, Parle Milk Shakti, Edify, Vodafone, and Crocin. But then Anand has been an exception. His Grandmaster contemporaries Dibyendu Barua and Pravin Thipsay, for example, earned almost nothing from brands. 

Interestingly, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) does enjoy modest corporate support. The Tatas sponsor one of their tournaments. h2e Power Systems is another seemingly big sponsor. FIDE and Tech Mahindra have now joined hands to promote chess through interactive technology-enabled platforms by leveraging next-gen technologies. At a personal level, Anand Mahindra gifted Praggnanandhaa  a Mahindra XUV400 electric SUV for his parents, in appreciation of his remarkable performance.

But chess, with India’s big leap forward globally, now needs a strong push in terms of corporate brand support. “Intellectual” businesses like IT majors — HCL, TCS, Wipro and their likes — need to use the game to buttress the global belief that Indians and Indian companies are brainy and smart. Chess is a great fit for them. The big consultancies — EY, Accenture, BCG, McKinsey, KPMG and Deloitte — should support chess. They all surely want to be seen as brainy and smart too. It would be a good move. The Byju’s Indian cricket sponsorship (now gone awry) was actually a better fit with chess than cricket. Now that PhysicsWallah has raised $210 million at a valuation of $2.8 billion, they should be associating themselves with chess for all the studious and cerebral types. 

And yes, the likes of Complan, Horlicks and Bournvita that have always tom-tomed mann ki shakti in addition to tann ki shakti need to lend their might to the cause of chess. It will be a win-win.

The writer is Chairman of Rediffusion