There is something about Indian chess that keeps everyone interested -- be it the black badges that the players wear to show their dissent or their excellent exploits over the chequered board.
The fact of the matter is that Chess has certainly graduated to a really happening sport in the country, especially in 2004.
The year had many ups and a few customary downs for the Indian players. While Viswanathan Anand made it another memorable year for himself, Grandmaster P Harikrishna proved to the world that there are many more talents ready to get into Anand's shoes by winning the World Juniors in November.
Anand was yet again the cynosure of all eyes the world over. All through the year, the Indian ace remained in top form and if the Wijk Ann Zee event in Corus, Netherlands was a great beginning for him this year, the Keres Memorial that he won with a perfect 5/5 score just a few days back was the icing on the cake.
And what a cake (walk) it was for Anand right through the year -- winning the Amber Rapid section, the Dortmund Sparkassen chess meeting, Sao Paolo Rapid, Corsica Masters, leading the World team to a victory over players with Armenian connections, and leading the Indian team to its best ever sixth place finish in Chess Olympiad.
There seems nothing that can stop Anand from winning the Chess Oscar for the second time running if the predictions of the chess pundits are anything to go by.
No one in the world could match Anand's enviable record this year when he re-elevated himself to second spot in world rankings overtaking Russian Vladimir Kramnik.
What separates Anand and the number one position now is Garry Kasparov. And since the Russian is busy doing many things off the board, it might not be too difficult for Anand to overtake him in ELO ratings in near future.
However, it goes without saying that the Tiger from Chennai is in top gear and given the amount of tournaments he participates (and that too successfully), he is the top player in the world by all statistics.
The year also witnessed a rare dissent by players against the All India Chess Federation following the reported move by the Federation to inflict a 10 per cent cut on prize money won by the players.
Almost all the top players in the country, including Anand, joined hands to take up the cause. The players wore black badges to show their unhappiness over the matter during the Pune International Chess Festival in October and the result was that AICF decided to withdraw it from January 2005.
However, the conflict is still on and the players want the AICF to withdraw this rule right from its introduction in June.
To take up the matter further, the players have formed Chess Players Association of India (CPAI) headed by the seasoned GM Dibyendu Barua. The immediate issue concerning the CPAI is Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota's exclusion from the just concluded Asian Women Team Championship. CPAI claims her omission amounts to 'victimisation' as she is a member of the association.
This controversy apart, it has been a wonderful year for the Indian players.
Harikrishna did exceedingly well in the Gibraltar Chess Congress and so did National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
Both announced their arrival in international circuit by excellent performances throughout the year and Harikrishna edged out everyone in the end with a remarkable victory in the World Juniors. The title comes back to India after 17 years after Anand won it in 1987 at Baggio, Philippines.
Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda were impressive in their own ways. Of the two, the former was quite up to the task in the Chess Olympiad where he chipped in with quite a few valuable points for the team.
It was also a fruitful championship for Deep Sengupta of Jamshedpur, who won the world under-12 championship and the national under-17 titles. Completing his GM norm, he promised more future GMs for India, the latest in the list is Tejas Bakre of Pune.
In the women's section, Koneru Humpy yet again hogged the limelight winning the Arjuna Award.
She also impressed her fans with a virtuoso performance in the World Women championship where she eventually lost in the semifinals before leading the Indian team to a ninth place finish, which was a resonably good show against some strong opponents in the Chess Olympiad.
The other women players had mixed fortunes but S Meenkashi finished off in style winning the silver medal in the Asian Women Championship at Beirut in Lebanon. Another big gainer was Eesha Karvade who completed the formalities to add to the growing list of Woman Grandmasters from the country.
Among the talented young brigade Woman Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika became the third girl ever to qualify for the prestigious National 'A' chess championship earlier this year and also won the World Youth (Under 14 Girls) title.
There is no doubt that the girl is immensely talented and is one to watch out for in immediate future.
Parimarjan Negi was the other youngster who finished among medals in the World Youth championship, winning the bronze in the Under12 Boys' section.
The Delhi youngster has been invited to take part in the Corus Grandmasters 'C' tournament where he will have the company of Anand, Kramnik and most of the top players, who would take part in the 'A' group.
In the Asian Championship for Under-16 and 18 at Singapore, Indians were on a roll bagging most of the medals at stake.
In the Boys Under-16, Arun Prasad clinched the gold medal and G N Gopal won the bronze. In Under-18, Abhijit Gupta and Deepan Chakravarthy claimed silver and bronze respectively.
In the Girls Under-16, Iran's P Atousa pipped Mary Ann Gomes at the post for the gold medal on better progressive score while Krutika Nadig got the bronze. In the Under-18 category, India bagged all three medals through N Vithuna, Esha Karvade and Harika.
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