Indian teens’ grand arrival on world stage

Teenage sensations are now the rage in Indian sports. Weeks after the popular Indian Premier League saw a mere 13-year-old cricketing talent, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, finding a spot among the big boys of world cricket by bagging a contract worth Rs 1.1 crore from a leading, cup-winning team Ra-jasthan Royals, yet another teenager – Gukesh Dommaraju – has rocked the world of chess with his world championship title, the game which India has given to the world.

Estimated to be played by around 8 per cent of the world’s population, spread over in 172 countries, the game of 64 squares has of late produced phenomenal players in our country. Gukesh, who took to the game just a decade ago, had the right training and support in the form of India’s first world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand, who has now heaped encomiums on his ward, a natural out-come.

Blessed with the apt attitude of a champion by being persistent, innovative and never giving up in spite of severe adverse developments, Gukesh made the chess lovers in India and abroad wait in an-ticipation as the game was almost slipping away from his end. Using his killer instinct of moving in when the opponent faltered, Gukesh, the Chennai-born Telugu boy touched unparalleled heights in the game, thus.

Despite being blessed with talent across ages, castes and communities, the youth in India have still had to struggle to carve a niche and make a mark in the field of sports, a fate which has haunted them all through decades of our country’s existence. A consistent, coordinated approach to encour-aging deserving youngsters is still work in progress, but in recent times, young sportsmen and wom-en have made their presence felt on the global stage in a host of games – cricket and hockey exclud-ed.

With big money now chasing talented cricketers, the game has morphed into a multi-level talent hunt for the authorities who have invested in training, chaperoning and reaping the benefits of their special skills over years. Of course, this has brought the game under the spotlight even more severe-ly, as accusations fly across countries of India owning the game, because of its financial clout and the business the cricket matches generate for everyone concerned.

Games like chess have enjoyed patronage, right from the royal times when it was named as ‘Cha-turanga’ and flourished, adapting itself to external influences and matching global levels over the past few centuries. It was in 1851 when the first chess tournament was played in London.

After a phase of Russian domination in the 1970s, a clutch of Indian players travelled outside the country to match their wits and strategies against the best brains of the game and kept the flag flying high. Names like Pravin Thipsay, A B Meitei come to mind other than the woman player, Jayashree Khadilkar, who was awarded the FIDE title – Woman International Master – in 1979, when she was just 17.

Our Gukesh is now the 18th world chess champion at 18, having secured the third youngest Grandmaster title at the age of 12. South India has once again stamped its authority on the game, with many more waiting in the wings to qualify for the big league and make our countrymen proud.