Indian chess is having a moment. Pragganandhaa in World Cup final is proof

India now has 83 chess Grandmasters, and going by the peerless Viswanathan Anand's reckoning, this generation will dominate for a decade or two

This is the first in a two-part series on chess in India. You can read part 2 here.

Just about a year ago, a team consisting of D Gukesh (Born May 2006), R Praggnanandhaa (August 2005), Nihal Sarin (July 2004), Raunak Sadhwani (Dec 2005), and B Adhiban (August 1992) won the bronze medal in the Open Section at the Chennai chess Olympiad. Their female compatriots also won the bronze.

This was the best result India had ever had in a monster event with teams from 186 nations.

The medallists, however, were deeply disappointed, and so were many Team