5 potential Indian successors to Viswanathan Anand
Vishwanathan Anand almost single handedly brought Indian chess from relative obscurity to the international representation. Regarded as one of the greatest Indian sportspersons, the five-time world champion has also been responsible for many young talents taking up the sport as their profession.World Champion Magnus Carlsen has also claimed, that India would be the strongest chess playing nation, 10 years down the line. Now that Anand is 45, it would be a very big challenge for any player to fill his shoes. But, given the strong pool of talent India has, let us take a look at the top Indian players who could possibly replace Anand to represent India on the world stage.
#5 Baskaran Adhiban
Baskaran Adhiban made a name for himself in the world arena by defeating the highly rated duo of Evgeny Alekseev and Alexandr Fier in the opening two rounds.
In 2008 he became the youngest ever champion of the Indian national 'B' championships.
Becoming grandmaster at the age of 18, B. Adhiban won the Barcelona Sants Open chess tournament (2013). The 23-year old was also a part of the gold medal winning Indian team in the U-16 World Olympiad (2008) in Turkey.
Also at the Chess Olympiad (2014) his 7/10 was crucial for India as they went on to win the bronze medal at the event for the first time.
Adhiban, who also won the U-16 World Youth Championship (2008) has a FIDE rating of 2632 and is just two points behind Sethuraman who is at no.5.
The 9th grandmaster from Tamil Nadu, is ranked 144th worldwide.