United States, step aside please. China has arrived. And it has taken the top spot in the world. Well, at least in the chess world.

At a time when few sports events are taking place because of the pandemic-driven lockdown across the world, chess appears to be thriving, mostly because it does not involve physical contact, can be played online, and can be followed online by its dedicated viewership. So when the rest of the sporting world is on ice, FIDE, the world chess federation, managed to pull off an online Nations Cup that ended in cybersphere on Sunday with China winning title after a 2-2 tie against the United States in the final despite having lost to the U.S in the earlier league phase because it had topped the round-robin tables.

A few observations about the Nations Cup and current chess world: Clearly, China has eclipsed Russia as the new chess superpower, although Russia remains in the top league, finishing fourth behind third-placed Europe. India, a new entrant to the chess high-table, finished fifth, and a Rest of the World team, created to accommodate brilliant players such as Irans Alireza Firouja and Azerbaijans Teimour Radjabov, whose countries do not have the kind of bench strength/depth to throw up an ELO 2600+ plus team, finished last.

The fact that the United States itself is a top contender is both a surprise and not a surprise. Thank immigration and immigrants for this. The US does not produce too many home-grown Bobby Fishers. The top US players are mostly of foreign origin: Its top-ranked player is Miami-born Fabiano Caruana, who is an Italian-American dual citizen, followed by Philippines-born Wesley So, and Japan-born Hiraku Nakamura. Youve to wonder if this robbed the title scrap with China with some of the needle of the kind that existed during Fishers clash with Boris Spassky in Reykjavik at the height of the Cold War. The fact that China pipped US to the title at a time ties between the two countries are at a nadir should chuff Beijing and irk Washington, except for the fact that few people in Trumps America cares squat about chess. They are out to make America great again in other spheres, by other means.

The surprise package, afaiac, is India. It is only in recent years that the land in which chess was born has become a major chess force, having grown from one Grandmaster in the late 1980s (the affable Vishy Anand) to 65 Grandmasters now fifth behind Russia, Germany, Ukraine, and United States. But its power is uneven and top-heavy, as was demonstrated at the Nations Cup, where it should have finished higher on the strength of Vishy Anands brilliance but for the sub-par performance of the promising younger stars, notably Vidit Gujarathi, Indias third-ranked player (Vidit himself recognized this in an apologetic tweet).

What can one say about Vishy Anand? His is now a remarkable story, and not just because he is a former five-time, multi-format world champion. He turned in an incredible performance, remaining undefeated against several players RANKED ABOVE HIM in world standings. Two things to note here: Anand is now officially ranked 15th in the world, and some think his best days are behind him. Also, Anand is now 50 and is considered over the hill by some. The current chess world is dominated by players in their 20s and 30s, and even teens such as Irans Alireza Firouja are seen as rising stars and future world champions. To draw a comparison (admittedly somewhat unfair), imagine Sunil Gavaskar or Kapil Dev playing alongside Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the current Indian cricket team.

Sure, chess is largely a mental game, but it also calls on immense reserves of physical stamina, not to speak of technology now, what with players taking recourse to computer engines in their preparations. But as the Nations Cup showed, Anand is a canny old fox, still at the top of his game, and you could not get a better demonstration of this than his brilliant 17-move skewering of Russias Ian Nepomniachtchi, ranked 5th in the world (ten places above Anand) and 20 years younger than him. Anand also defeated Azerbaijans Radjabov (ranked 11th and playing for the Rest of the World team) and drew with world #3 Chinas Ding Liren and world # 7 Frances Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. It is an incredible result for the chess worlds senior statesman, although the overall Indian performance was disappointing to those who aimed higher.

Anands game against Nepomniachtchi is currently scorching the chess world and is seen as something of a masterpiece. I will let the chess pundits describe it in comments, along with a most insightful commentary by Anand himself. Bravo maestro!

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Original post:

China pips US in world chess at a time their ties are at a nadir - Economic Times