In 1886, in different cities in the United States, the first official world chess championship took place in which the Austrian Wilhelm Steinitz triumphed, by 10 victories to 5, against the Polish Johannes Zukertort. Two Europeans. Since then, at least one representative from the Old Continent has participated in each match for the supreme title. This “rule” will fall shortly after having been applied for one hundred and thirty-eight years.
Indeed, this year 2024, the world championship will pit two Asians against each other for the first time: the current world champion, the Chinese Ding Liren, 32 years old, and the young Indian Gukesh Dommaraju, only 18 years old. Endowed with 2.5 million dollars and sponsored mainly by Google (again, for the first time), the match will be played in Singapore in fourteen matches, the first of which is scheduled for Monday, November 25.
The times are far from the supremacy of the USSR and then of Russia over the sixty-four places. The center of gravity of chess has been shifting for some time towards Asia, the continent where the game was born. The world title won by Ding Liren in 2023, the first won by a Chinese, was the most blatant recent sign. But we were able to detect well in advance a fundamental movement in the development of the discipline in the two most populated countries in the world.
The Chinese dethrone the Soviets.
Therefore, China has patiently implemented a Soviet-style system, with early talent detection. A policy that bore its first fruits among women. In 1991, Xie Jun ended Soviet hegemony and became the first in a long line of Chinese world champions: Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua, Hou Yifan, Tan Zhongyi and Ju Wenjun, who has held the title since 2018. Today , in the women’s ranking established by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the first four places are occupied by Chinese women.
On the Indian side, the pioneer and driving force behind the development of chess was undoubtedly Viswanathan Anand who, after several failed attempts and, in particular, a defeat against Garry Kasparov in 1995, won the world crown in 2007. He did not relinquish it in 2013. to the most prodigious player of the beginning of the 21st centurymy century, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.
Still active: At 54, “Vishy” Anand is 10my World player – the “Tiger of Madras”, as he is nicknamed, has inspired numerous talents and we have witnessed an abundant flowering of great Indian masters, among them the young Gukesh Dommeraju, Erigaisi Arjun (21 years old) and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (19 ). years). In the latest FIDE classification, published in early November, five Indians are among the top twenty.
You have 55.02% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
