Sagar Shah On India’s Chess Revolution: From Vishy Anand’s Legacy To The Rise of a New Generation

Indian chess owes a lot to Sagar Shah, a chess player who holds the title of International Master. Sagar is so brilliant in the sport that he could very well be having the title of the Grand Master and would have been seen sitting across a table facing some of the most brilliant minds in the sport plotting his next move.

But the 35-year-old Charted Accountant took a different route. Instead of pursuing a career in the sport, he became the sport’s voice. He turned towards writing on the sport, doing commentary on the matches. His biggest contribution to the sport though came when he co-founded ChessBase India, an online news portal that vigorously covers chess. ChessBase India also runs a non-profit called HelpChess to support chess players who are in need for funds for their training and tournaments. Sagar is also a YouTuber and his streams on chess are followed by millions.

At the sidelines of the launch of the Aurionpro International GrandMaster chess tournament The Sportz Planet caught up with him for an in depth interview.

Excerpts of the interview are below:

What has been the reason behind India’s dominance in chess on the world stage in recent years? Last year, Gukesh became India’s youngest world champion and India won gold medals in Olympiads. What’s driving this rise?

Sagar: I think there are several reasons which have come together. The main one being Vishy Anand’s contribution for over three decades—I think that really inspired a lot of people to take up chess. Then you have things like good trainers who have come to the fore like R.B. Ramesh, Srinath, Vishnu and all of these who are actually strong players who have dedicated their time to chess coaching. So this is a big thing.

Then you have the government support, you have the PSUs which are supporting like Indian Oil, ONGC and so on. So these factors are all the reasons why chess in India has reached where it is.

So, many people say why is this the golden generation? Why didn’t we have the same with (Pentala) Harikrishna, (Krishnan) Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte. I think it’s just—you stand on the shoulders of your previous generation and I think this generation basically got many opportunities and of course, they had immense talent.

So all those things came together?

Sagar: I think too many things came together to actually pinpoint, but if I had to say one reason then of course Vishy Anand would get the biggest credit for it.

Talking about your career, you achieved the title of International Master, but you kind of stopped playing professionally and instead pursued a career in media and chess content creation. What led to this decision?

Sagar: Firstly, it was never a conscious decision to do this. It started with me and my wife playing chess and realizing that there are certain things which are needed here. For example, when you play a tournament, there is no coverage, the mainstream media does not have enough space to cover chess news.

So we decided that we could do something on our own a little bit and that is how it began. ChessBase is something that we used a lot in our preparation, so we thought let’s ask if ChessBase would like to sort of give its software in India and you know it will help the players. That’s how ChessBase India came into being—that we could cover Indian chess news and so on.

And at some point, we were playing, we were covering, we were trying to build a company. And it was getting too much to handle, so we both took a decision that let’s take a break and focus.

I think what happened was the time when we began ChessBase India is the time when all these youngsters started to rise. Be it Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Divya, Arjun. It all coincided.

We actually grew along with them. Right now I was checking—we have more than 700 videos of Gukesh. Right from him playing under-11 nationals to then becoming the world champion. The same with Praggnanandhaa, Arjun.

We never thought that we were kind of building something. It was always like—we are enjoying this, let others also enjoy what we are seeing. And that was how the YouTube channel or our social media or our website—all of that came into being.

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Q: It’s now kind of accepted that India is dominating internationally, but there’s one caveat—not enough girls are reaching the same levels as boys. What could be the reason and how do you plan to address it?

Sagar: The timing of the question is interesting. Just yesterday, Vaishali beat Ju Wenjun, the world champion. So in a way, we cannot say that India does not have talents in girls.

We have Vaishali, we have Divya, there is Vantika, there are young girls like Charuni, there is—you know, all these youngsters who are coming up, Savitha Shri. But the real question is why are girls not able to reach, let’s say, 2700+ or top in the world and so on.

I think therein lies some very interesting questions of what can be done. Like we tried a small initiative—we have an inter-school tournament that happens in Phoenix Marketcity, which we organized.

So instead of doing two categories—boys and girls—we just kept one open category. And actually, one girl won the under-14 section.

So my feeling is that we need, first of all, to create the right environment for girls to participate. Secondly, I feel like more girls can participate in open events—then they are competing with the boys and that helps them to really improve.

It’s a very complex question—why fewer girls are playing—and that requires a lot of deep introspection by the entire, not just chess community, but the entire society in general. But at least we can take the first few steps here.

Amruta—my better half, who is also the co-founder of ChessBase India—she is very passionate about this. She feels like girls playing in open sections can be very helpful. So that’s one step there.

Freestyle chess is becoming very popular. Do you think it could one day overtake classical chess in popularity?

Sagar: I’m not sure yet. I think a lot depends upon how things pan out in the next few months. Also right now, freestyle is a very very interesting initiative backed by Magnus and Jan Bjütner and a lot of the effort flows from them.

I personally think they have great intentions at heart when it comes to growing the sport. They are introducing new elements, new things which are so fresh, so new. But when it comes to format on its own—it is a little bit difficult for the viewers to understand.

Because normal chess has so many years of history—you know the names of the openings, the historical context, “this was played here”, and so on. It’s not just the game but the entire thing which comes along with it—the package. While in freestyle chess, it’s new.

I’m very curious to see how far this can go and whether this can become sustainable. My feeling is—if it succeeds, it will co-exist with traditional chess. It would not outshine traditional chess. That’s what I feel.

Three years ago, the Global Chess League was launched. Is that a step a step in the direction? Or should India focus more on traditional formats?

Sagar: I think the Global Chess League is a very interesting project backed by Tech Mahindra. Because chess did require a league—like the IPL in cricket. And Global Chess League is that league which is very attractive, it has the best players in the world.

They have been tinkering with the format—to keep increment, no increment, the team structure—and they have this thought of how to sort of monetize chess, how to monetize chess broadcasts.

I feel like all these entities working in this direction to make themselves and their events sustainable are actually helping chess. Because they are trying to find the right way. Like you can see Freestyle doing it, Global Chess League doing this.

And I think I am very grateful for these organizations to actually spend their time, effort, and energy in promoting chess.

Someone told me you had plans to launch something called a chess dating app. Is that true?

Sagar: It’s actually “chess matrimony.” It started as an April Fool’s prank that we did one year—we said we are launching Chess Matrimony and people kind of liked the idea. They were like, “Why is this just an April Fool’s prank? Why don’t you actually do it?”

Because you can see in chess—there are few players who have married chess players. Like we have Pravin Thipsay ji here, we have R.B. Ramesh, we have Sriram Jha–Vijayalakshmi, Barua–Sahithi Idar.

So the idea was—chess players can put up not just a place where you say your hobbies and interests like on a dating app, but here you can actually put which openings you like, which chess books you read, and sort of build a questionnaire.

This was just for fun. And then Amruta kind of started finding a lot of interest and she would ask people during tournaments, “What do you think about it?” And I think it’s slowly taking shape in her mind that maybe it’s not such a stupid idea after all.


I don’t know what will come out of it, but maybe if you do see chessmatrimony.com, then maybe that’s nice too.

Young players today can play either online or over the board. In your time, it was mostly physical chess. What’s the best approach today?

Sagar: I think we have to adapt to the technology that is there. While there is nothing that replaces over-the-board experience, the convenience of online play has to be appreciated.

A kid can be anywhere and just open the phone and start playing—and that has really helped players to improve. For example, we can see all these young talents at the age of 15–16 beating world-class opponents. How is it happening? It’s because they are getting these opportunities to play against great players online.

So from that perspective, if someone is serious about chess, they have to use this as a very serious medium to improve. It’s like saying—is engine a relevant thing in your chess preparation or should we do it without it? It’s no longer a question—because engines have become so good that you have to use them. I think the same goes for online chess.

Nowadays, any serious player uses it as a means to improve.

Any young players, in India or globally, that you’re excited about and the world should keep an eye on?

Sagar: Oh, for sure. I mean recently we had Roman Shukhzhev, who became an IM at the age of 10 years 3 months—super talent from Russia. There is Faustino Oro from Argentina, who is now 11 years old—just played with Vishy Anand the other day. Gave him a good fight.

Then we have from India itself—Ilamparti, who is around 14 or 15 years old and is trying to become a GM. Very close. There is Mayank Chakraborty, Thanwaz, Gautam Krishna—these are all great talents.

Maybe from this event here in the Orient Pro, we’ll see Madhavendra Pratap Sharma, who is a great talent from Madhya Pradesh.

There is this young boy, Anish Sarkar, who is just 4 years old. He lives in Kolkata. Even Magnus was surprised by the quality of his games. I myself did a big video with him in Kolkata, where I tested him. I was blown away by his talent.

He is just so young—he’s 4 and has a long way to go. But you can already sense that if he keeps working, he’ll become a great player.

Finally, could you suggest some ways for Indian chess to grow more and become even better

Sagar: One thing is from the player’s perspective—more players have to play the sport, which means that more parents have to see that their kids play. And that requires them to sort of trust the sport.

The second is from the organizers or you can say people who are doing events—provide more opportunities for youngsters to play.

And the third is from the sponsor’s perspective—that maybe this becomes a very ideal place to invest and back the sport.

I think so you can see—the players and parents, the people who organize events, and the sponsors—all of them have to work to grow the sport.


Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk