By Admin 
On the final night of the Chess World Cup at Resort Rio, there were, so to speak, two Viswanathan Anands: the legend in person, and the winner’s trophy that has FIDE named after him, shortly before the tournament kicked off nearly a month ago. And that was just about the Indian presence in the final.
There was no Indian in the semifinal, in fact. For a country that is used to winning just about every title in international chess – the Olympiad for both men and women, the World championship, the women’s World Cup, the World junior title – that is a disappointment. And even more so as the host of the tournament in which all the top three seeds were Indians.
Among them, the second seed Arjun Erigaisi travelled farthest. He reached the quarterfinals rather comfortably, and had looked extremely well prepared and very solid. But he went down to China’s Wei, who played even more solidly and went on to contest the final.
And Arjun badly needed to finish inside the top three so that he could qualify for the Candidates, which he is going to miss yet again after coming so close. While for Gukesh, it proved yet another eminently forgettable outing after becoming the youngest World champion last year. Praggnanandhaa, also, wasn’t just the brilliant performer he has been for most of the year.
There were 24 Indians in all. Among them, V. Pranav looked really impressive. The World junior champion reached the fourth round and showed once again that he was a serious talent. Karthik Venkataraman also reached the last 32, quite a performance from someone who began as the 109th seed.
Higher seeds like Vidit Gujrathi, Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sarin, made earlier exits. Still, given the knock-out format of the tournament, there is no need to read too much into India’s below-par show. It was more of an aberration.