{"id":266143,"date":"2022-12-05T12:28:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T12:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2022\/12\/05\/viswanathan-anand-focuses-on-producing-the-next-champion-chess-news-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T12:28:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T12:28:20","slug":"viswanathan-anand-focuses-on-producing-the-next-champion-chess-news-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2022\/12\/05\/viswanathan-anand-focuses-on-producing-the-next-champion-chess-news-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Viswanathan Anand focuses on producing the next champion | Chess News – Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KOLKATA: An idea floated quite casually has led to the foundation of an academy that is showing promise of making India the world\u2019s next chess superpower. Sandeep Singhal, co-founder of WestBridge Capital Advisors, a venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, asked Viswanathan Anand<\/a> whether they can do something together in chess after the five-time world champion was on his way out after a lecture session at their office in 2019. Anand assured he will get back.
\u201cObviously I had some ideas to work on. I grew up with stories of the Botvinnik Chess Academy (where top Soviet players used to train) and saw the Olympic Gold Quest where the foundation takes care of the backend activities of the players. So it was more of a combination of a lot of things that led to the birth of WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) in December 2020 with the first lecture taking place in January 2021,\u201d Anand stated.
\u201cOur idea was to have a proper ecosystem in place for the growth of the players,\u201d Singhal added.
The first decision was about selecting players and Anand said \u201cWe decided on those who are very young and very strong.\u201d Accordingly, the journey began with the brother-sister duo of Praggnanandhaa and Rameshbabu Vaishali along with D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani. \u201cWe got Leon (Mendonca) on board in December after he became a Grandmaster during the lockdown period. Later on, Arjun (Erigaisi) joined while Savitha Shri is the latest entrant,\u201d Anand said.
As it happened during the Covid time, the classes were held online around thrice a week with coaches Boris Gelfand, Grzegorz Gajewski, Artur Yusupov and Sandipan Chanda. And results started showing with almost all of the players recording a huge rise in rating points.
Anand himself is deeply involved mainly in the planning part. \u201cI keep in touch with the coaches and get monthly feedback from them along with looking after the training schedules. But personally I share my experiences with them,\u201d Anand stated.
The youngsters too are finding the journey exciting. \u201cThe classes are very motivating and also fun. I find those enjoyable,\u201d this year\u2019s Arjuna award winner Praggu stated. \u201cAll the coaches are very helpful and the way they support you in analysing your mistakes helps a lot,\u201d Arjun, who made rapid strides after joining WACA, stated.
Youngest of them Savitha has already gelled well with her classmates. \u201cI learnt a lot from the way they all analyse positions,\u201d she said. \u201cWe mostly solve positions and classes are always very challenging and interesting,\u201d Gukesh pointed out.
Looking ahead, India\u2019s first GM said \u201cat the beginning we had a rough idea of having a couple of Indian players in the world\u2019s top 10 and we are inching closer to that.\u201d It\u2019s a journey that has just begun, but began well. <\/div>\n