We’re not just in front in world chess, we’re leaving some in our dust – and we’ll be in an even better position down the line. That’s what you can count on from Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi. As the first woman in India to hold both the IM and WGM titles, she has no doubts, and while she gives credit to Chennai, she’s also making room for a new crop of players and perhaps herself once more.
To Vijayalakshmi, it isn’t all about the hardware. It’s a matter of culture. The way we jostle with one another in India, she says, is what is now dictating the tempo for the rest of the world. And if there is a common thread, it is a city that has never run out of conviction.
Chennai’s engine of Indian chess
She has no trouble with the word epicentre when it comes to Chennai and its part in our chess revolution. You can draw a line from Manuel Aaron to Viswanathan Anand and to her, and they are all from this one place. In her view, that has made for a home-grown supply of champions that takes care of itself.
‘We are the strongest chess playing nation in the world. And we are going to become even stronger than we are right now,’ she puts it. Where the heat is on, she says, is right here in Chennai, with the next in line already sizing up the current big names.
You can see it in the making. Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali – they are testament to the work put in early on. ‘It is like a crop that is continuously growing’ is how she sees it, since the roots were put in well and true from the start.
A pioneer who nearly crossed another barrier
Then there is her side of the story, which has a touch of the almost-was. ‘It’s so near yet so far,’ she’ll have it, when she thinks of putting together four Men’s GM norms and being two yellow rating points from the title. There is some sting to it, but plenty of pride as well.
‘I don’t know how many have done what I have with the Men’s GM norms, but I am one of them,’ she says. Even if you don’t cross the line, ‘it has been an amazing journey.’ But there is something left unsaid that still tugs at her.
So a return is on the table. ‘I’m sure I’ll still be able to do it. Probably in the next few years. I’m thinking of getting back to chess again.’ For her, the GM is something to go after, not put in a drawer.
Grief, pause, and resolve
What put a stop to things for a while wasn’t anything to do with the board. “On August 15, 2007, I lost my father. He was also my coach,” she says. For a while, the idea of coming back was out of the question. “Even walking into a tournament hall would bring on the tears.”
She put the game on hold for some three years. “I’d have to say it was the hardest part of my life,” she will tell you. There was no comfort in being asked to be a chief guest at an event. “You can’t put a lid on that kind of pain. I’d start as soon as I was in the chess hall.”
These days, though, her head is in a different place. Some time has put the grief in its proper perspective and given it a new direction. If she does make a comeback, it won’t be for the sake of a trophy, but to get back to where she used to be.
A new wave already cresting
Her peers may have put down the rails, but the ones playing now are the ones on the move. “Gukesh has made history with his world title; he’s as young as they come in any sport we can think of,” she says. “An amazing thing to do.”
Then there is the women’s game. She points to a first: Vaishali, who has become the first Indian to take the Women’s Candidate and is in for the world championship. “I’m only waiting for her to put one over on the world champion too,” she says.
It’s a matter of when, not if. “Once she does, we’ll have our men’s and women’s champions right here. You see what I mean? The bar in India is going up.”
Vijayalakshmi puts it in three points:
– We have more depth than anyone else out there.
– You can still test yourself like nowhere else in Chennai.
– The next big wins are all but certain.
Why her words have weight
At 47, and as the first woman from this country to be an IM and WGM, Vijayalakshmi isn’t just an onlooker. She sees the link between what’s happening and the groundwork laid by people like Manuel Aaron, Vishy Anand and those of us who were there at the start.
“We put in the basement, so to speak. It was easy for them to build on it.” It’s a case of having the right structure before you put up the walls. This is how she makes sense of India’s progress: it’s a system, not a fluke.
It comes down to a few things for the fans and the players. What’s the story? We’ve taken the lead and made it count. Why is it important? Because we have a pipeline that will last. And what’s in store? More of the same, with Chennai in the vanguard.
There is no gloat in her tone, only a nudge to keep at it. Her own return is in step with the country’s. They’re both running on the same fuel: the better we do, the more we have to show for it.
