India is quite possibly the birthplace of chess, with the four branches of the ancient Indian army, infantry, cavalry, chariots and war elephants, morphing into the pawns, knights, rooks and bishops of the modern game. The most celebrated protagonist of Indian chess is former world champion, Viswanathan Anand. Nevertheless, behind him are surging younger generations of Indian grandmasters, some of whom (e.g. Dommaraju Gukesh and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa) are still barely into their teens.
In the slightly older generation, mid-twenties, are such accomplished practitioners as Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, who made his presence strongly felt when he came, saw and conquered with a spectacular victory against ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik at Wijk aan Zee in January (see this column of 9 February). Vidit has now scored a further noteworthy performance, sharing second prize at Prague behind only Vitiugov, and winning the following filigree endgame against a one-time world title challenger.
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