D Gukesh reveals how Viswanathan Anand boosted Indian chess with a key COVID-19 move: 'It was a great moment'

Five-time chess world champion Viswanathan Anand has been the inspiration for almost all chess players, but it isn’t just his off-field achievements that have helped India turn into a chess powerhouse. Current chess world champion D Gukesh on Saturday touched upon WestBridge Anand Chess Academy’s (WACA) role in the rise of Indian chess in recent years.

Anand set up the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy in partnership with WestBridge Capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. It started functioning from January 2021 with five chess players. The first batch of mentees included Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, R Vaishali and Raunak Sadhwani.

Gukesh from that batch won the World Chess Championship in December 2024, beating Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren, while Praggnanandhaa won the ‘Wimbledon of chess’ Tata Steel Masters 2025 in February this year.

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Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vasihali also recently became the third Indian woman Grandmaster.

In 2024, the Indian men’s and women’s teams also won gold medals at the Chess Olympiad for the first time.

‘To discuss chess with Vishy Anand is motivating’

Gukesh, while appearing at the India Today Conclave, explained how Anand’s WestBridge Anand Chess Academy had led to the rise of India as a superpower in the world of chess.

“I think a lot of factors play a role here (Gukesh said while talking about the rise of Indian chess). I think one of the biggest contributions, without a doubt, is what Vishy (Viswanathan Anand) sir has been doing, not only with his achievements, not only being an inspiration, but around 2020 December, he partnered with WestBridge to launch WestBridge Anand Academy. I am a part, I’m a student in the academy and Vishy Sir’s vision was to select the top talented youngsters at that time in the lockdown because there were no tournaments happening,” Gukesh said.

“It was all online and a lot of people were not working as hard. So it was a great moment for us to actually take that advantage. It was super exciting for me, and I’m sure a lot of youngsters, because getting in touch with Vishy sir, to discuss chess with him regularly, was so motivating that the lockdown, the pandemic, didn’t feel like a waste of time. We were actually working super hard,” he added.

Earlier this month, Gukesh moved to the career-best world ranking of three. He has an Elo rating of 2787 and will look to cross the 2800 mark, making him the third Indian to do so.