India can have next chess world champion by 2025: Viswanathan Anand
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Viswanathan Anand said that India has enough talent to produce the next Chess World Champion but it will not happen before 2025 because there is no quicker pathway. "The process to create one will take that much time."
He has started mentoring the next batch of chess whizkids at his Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) after taking a break during the lockdown. The five-time world chess champion said that his objective is to contribute to an Indian winning a world title but to create a pool of players to make India a "superpower in chess".
"The world championship cycle, let's see what shape it will take in the next 1-2 years and so on. But the World Championship is just the icing on the cake. We should be aiming for the cake, by just getting stronger, making progress," said the deputy president of FIDE.
"If you are strong enough then you are ready for whatever turns up there, that's my attitude. It will be very hard to predict what shape of things the chess world is changing very fast these days," he added.
About India's success in the Chess Olympiad, he said it is not a coincidence. "I certainly think we contributed to it. Of course, you have to praise their individual coaches, families, and their own work. But I think we certainly contributed." India won nine medals including a first-ever bronze by the women's team at the Chess Olympiad. India B team comprising Gukesh, Nihal, Praggu, and Raunak won a bronze in the open section.
Anand further said that there was a period when they were all promising top youngsters. " I think they have not wasted these last three years and made significant progress, every single one of them with this kind of systematic work."