Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi who won two gold medals at the Chess Olympiad is currently going viral for his comments on cricket.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is an Indian chess grandmaster. At the Olympics, he won two gold medals. He won a silver medal at the Asian Games as well. In January 2013, Gujrathi became the 30th Indian player to acquire the grandmaster title. He is the fourth player from India to surpass the 2700 Elo rating. By winning Grand Swiss 2023, he became the third Indian to earn a spot in the Candidates competition.
Chess GM Vidit Gujrathi leaves Indian cricket fans miffed after claiming the sport isn’t competitive on podcast
While he’s made a name for himself over the years in the world of chess, Vidit is currently going viral for his comments on the game of cricket in a podcast. When asked to give a controversial opinion by the hosts, Vidit went onto talk about how he thought cricket wasn’t a global sport, citing a lack of competition in the game with him calling out how only 10-12 proper countries really competed in cricket on the world stage.
He also compared it to the Chess Olympiad which is played in 170 plus countries and further spoke about how none of his European friends even knew what cricket was. While Vidit went onto further talk about how he hoped the game would expand and the weaker teams would get an opportunity to play against the bigger sides and showcase their mettle which would in turn expose unearthed talent, his comments have left cricket fans in India irked. Vidit asserted that he’s a fan of cricket though and even took up the sport as a child before turning to chess.
Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi was just another Indian kid who dreamt of becoming a cricketer in his childhood before an accidental initiation to chess.
He revealed that he used to play cricket like every kid in India and his father had taken him for coaching as well. “He took me to a club and there cricket was played with season ball, so my Dad said to me wait for a year and then play cricket, till then pick another sport. So I started chess.
“My father taught me and I wanted to win against him, so that was the motivation. It was an accident but a very happy accident,” Vidit had said earlier as he revealed how he switched from cricket to chess.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi claimed that after witnessing his doctor parents being asked to work odd hours, he considered athletics as a more “stable” career option. This “error of judgement” has ultimately “worked out well” for him.
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When Gujrathi was just six years old, a local club suggested that he postpone his goal of playing cricket until he was older. He chose to play chess instead because he had played the game with his father for a long time and was already comfortable with it.
“I saw it as a good opportunity to learn and beat him. It was a complete accident, but a happy one,” Gujrathi recalled in a press release issued by the event organisers.
Three Indians participated in this year’s Candidates Tournament, an eight-man competition that determined the Challenger for the World Chess Championship in November, including Gujrathi, who still has a rating of over 2700. Despite his great results, he was unable to win the competition.
Vidit spills the truth: cricket isn’t even a global sport—just 11-12 countries play it, and most Europeans don’t even know it exists. Meanwhile, chess is played in 150+ countries and is far more competitive. Yet, Indians idolize a low-skill, low-IQ game like cricket. pic.twitter.com/dfz4CV9zW5
— Lord Immy Kant (Eastern Exile) (@KantInEast) December 3, 2024
Vidit Gujrathi career
In 2023, Vidit Gujrathi participated in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament from October 25 to November 5. With a score of 8½/11, he won the competition after losing in the opening round and winning seven of his following ten games.
By placing in the top two of the Grand Swiss, Vidit earned a spot in the Candidates Tournament 2024. The All India Chess Federation declared that Vidit, R Praggnanandhaa, and R Vaishali would receive ₹20 million in financial aid for their preparation.
In the Candidates Tournament 2024, he defeated Hikaru Nakamura in both of their matches and finished sixth.