India's Chess Dominance Fades: A Disappointing Semi-Final Void at Home World Cup

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Mumbai: The Indian chess team's impressive run came crashing down at the recent World Cup in Goa, with none of its top players making it to the semi-finals. This is a stark contrast to the last World Cup, where four Indians made it to the quarter-finals. Indian grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, and R Praggnanandhaa were expected to make deep runs, but they were eliminated in the quarter-finals, round 4, and round 3 respectively. Praggnanandhaa, the 2023 World Cup finalist, was not as motivated to perform well in the tournament as he had already secured a spot in the Candidates tournament. Gukesh, the reigning world champion, has been experiencing a downturn in his classical games, which has raised concerns about his ability to cope with the pressure of being a world champion. His coach, Srinath Narayanan, believes that Gukesh is going through a transition phase and is still adjusting to the expectations and pressure that come with being a world champion. Erigaisi, on the other hand, failed to break into the Candidates tournament for the second consecutive year. His coach, Srinath, attributed his failure to bad luck and a need to work on his skills to become stronger. The Indian chess team's poor performance can be attributed to the top players focusing too much on opening preparations and not enough on practical elements like over-the-board calculations and decision-making ability in unexpected positions. The two-game set of classical games in the World Cup also contributed to the random results. However, there were some positives for the Indian team, with players like Pentala Harikrishna, Diptayan Ghosh, Pranav V, and Karthik Venkataraman performing well in the tournament. The Indian chess team will look to regroup and come back stronger in the next tournament. As Srinath Narayanan said, 'It has been an underwhelming performance, but we are still hopeful that we can turn it around next year.'