Chess: Raunak Sadhwani adds his name to the growing wave of Indian challengers

The 17-year-old from Nagpur recently won the FIDE Junior World Rapid Champion before finishing second in the FIDE Junior Blitz World Championships.

Oct 28, 2023 - 09:30

Chess: Raunak Sadhwani adds his name to the growing wave of Indian challengers

“It’s going to be one Indian after another, after another, after another, after another – all disciples of Vishy.”

In that one sentence, world No 4 chess player Hikaru Nakamura predicted how the sport is going to shape up now that five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand has retired. The chess world will move forward with a barrage of Indian youngsters challenging Magnus Carlsen, the biggest name in the game.

Nakamura made the statement after GM Karthikeyan Murali beat Carlsen in a classical chess match. But of late, the spotlight has majorly been the likes of new India No 1 Dommaraju Gukesh, Candidates qualified Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and the ever-improving Arjun Erigaisi – all of whom have successfully graduated to the highest level and are rated above 2700. And there are a few more who promise to reach that stage in the coming months.

One among those is 17-year-old Raunak Sadhwani.

The Nagpur-lad is currently in a rich vein of form, which saw him being crowned the first-ever FIDE World Junior Rapid Champion earlier in the month before finishing second in the FIDE Junior Blitz World Championships.

“I am glad to have won these medals,” Sadhwani told Scroll days after he won the world event in Pula, Italy. “Podium finish in both the formats is quite satisfactory.”