{"id":504626,"date":"2026-02-26T05:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504626\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:25:08","slug":"grandmaster-viswanathan-anand-believes-australia-ready-to-become-chess-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504626\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand believes Australia ready to become chess country"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a thriving scene in schools and a wealth of stunning locations to host events, one of the greatest chess players to ever grace the chequered board believes the sport is poised to explode in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is the hope of Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand, who believes Australia has the right foundations to become a prominent chess nation in the near future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the five-time Chess World Champion believes one of Sydney’s most famous venues could be a future host of the sport’s newest franchise league.<\/p>\n

Speaking to ABC Sport while in Australia, Anand, 56, said he was “amazed” to see the high engagement in chess, especially among younger players.<\/p>\n

“We had the Netflix, Queen’s Gambit and pandemic boom, and there is another boom happening in Australia, which is chess in schools,” Anand said.<\/p>\n

“I was kind of prepared for the fact that more people would be following chess on their phones, but I was amazed to see the chess in schools scene that is happening here.<\/p>\n

“Generally, Australia hasn’t been a chess country, but I think that’s about to change.”<\/p>\n

More than 2,000 grandmaster titles have been awarded by the sport’s governing body, FIDE, since 1950.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Just 10 of those grandmasters were Australian (excluding Walter S Browne, who was born in Australia but identified as American), with Ian Rogers the first to achieve the title in 1985.<\/p>\n

But after seeing a blooming chess community during his Sydney tour, Anand believes Australia is poised to add more grandmasters to its list of 10.<\/p>\n

“There are very, very passionate communities. Youngsters are doing it, and getting their elders to follow the game a bit,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think this could be a very promising moment for Australian chess.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new venture that Anand believes could help chess reach new heights, not just in Australia, is the sport’s maiden franchise league \u2014 Global Chess League.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Launched in 2023, the competition has had three seasons with many of the world’s top players participating in the six-team competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team-based chess has traditionally been limited to representing your country in tournaments like the Chess Olympiad.<\/p>\n

But the Global Chess League, a joint venture between FIDE and Indian multinational company Tech Mahindra, is taking plenty of inspiration from cricket’s Indian Premier League.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anand has been the lead player for the Ganges Grandmasters in all three seasons, and is also the current deputy president of FIDE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buoyed by the success of GCL’s three seasons so far, Anand believes the tournament has the ability to continue to grow into new markets and reach a wider audience, especially in Australia.<\/p>\n

“They right away started with the idea, just like IPL, they should focus on making it entertainment and focus on attracting new audiences,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Everything has been redesigned to make it packageable for television.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Chess has done well on the internet, but the key is to reach out to new audiences that don’t naturally encounter chess.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I would say both in India and Australia, there is a culture of being open to these new formats and presentations.”<\/p>\n

The GCL is played in one location across two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Viswanathan Anand believes the Sydney Cricket Ground would be a great location for chess. (Getty Images: AFL Photos\/Matt King)<\/p>\n

So far, Dubai, London and Mumbai have hosted the franchise league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After visiting the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, Anand believes Sydney could be an ideal spot to bring the booming chess competition in the future.<\/p>\n

“Most venues want to host multiple different games, to show they are not restricted to one sport,” Anand said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have the pleasure of visiting the Sydney Cricket Ground \u2026 we are hopeful we can find some area of collaboration there.”<\/p>\n

Also speaking with ABC Sport, Tech Mahindra’s Harshvendra Soin was upbeat about the future of Australian chess, and the prospect of a historic venue like the SCG hosting chess tournaments.<\/p>\n

“I already have an imagination. In the middle of the SCG, you have the finals of the Global Chess League.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a thriving scene in schools and a wealth of stunning locations to host events, one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5844,64,63,103125,253570,43290,588,85,253569],"class_list":["post-504626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-abc-sport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chess","tag-global-chess-league","tag-scg","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-viswanathan-anand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}