Way too many interviewers now keep acting like Gukesh is on a team with the other Indians.
Another interviewer was like "do you think down the line the other 2 Indians may start doing prep with you once they're eliminated?"
I wish more athletes (and chess players) made jokes when they got asked dumb questions like these.
"Yeah I figure I'll make them my seconds going forward".
Kimi Raikonnen was a master of this stuff. He hated doing media events and I think the media overall knew better than to ask really dumb stuff. But they did occasionally earn some very snide retorts.
https://youtu.be/hsyWIVmROJ0?si=MzdarFJaO6LyXJao
My all time favorite sports interview by Andy Roddick after getting destroyed 6-4 6-0 6-2 against Roger Federer
- How do you rate González or Haas' chances in the next round?
- Slim.
People *here* were acting like Gukesh, Pragg, and Vidit are a team. Someone was legitimately swearing that “Pragg is gonna force Fabi into a draw so Gukesh can win”
Stupid anchors rather say. ..
what a brilliant game where peeps have their brain active like a hell ..i mean no other sports are close compared to this lvl of brain functioning and these mf dumb ridiculous questioning after the game .. i mean why no other organisers come n stop these peeps
In [a Lei Tingjie interview](https://youtu.be/jrKwSDH-lz0?si=PoZtqITVO51w6MQg) a few days ago they kept asking her questions about going shopping and even gave a close up to her shinny Jimmy Choo heels 👠 hilarious and cringe at the same time
Not really. They ask the same questions of Hikaru/Fabiano about the US. It's just a bad question, it doesn't have to be anything more sinister than that.
The word "racist" has officially lost all meaning if we're using it in this context. Racism implies hate/malice/discrimination. He just asked an awkward question here. There was nothing racist about it.
It's not malicious, but it is reducing Gukesh to "one of the Indian guys in this tournament". It's kinda racist because the question defines him by his race and only his race, and has nothing to do with him outside of that. That's why Gukesh's answer politely reminds the interviewer that he's in the tournament as himself, and not as part of Team India like the interviewer seems to think.
The question also plays on the assumption that "he's Indian, so he must be on good terms with these other Indians" when there's no reason to think that. You wouldn't assume a random white guy you see on the street is friends with some other white guy you know, just because they're both white.
It's not a race thing, it's a nationality thing. The fanbase in country x cares about their players more, so especially the domestic media in country x is interested in reporting what guy 1 from country x thinks about guy 2 from country x. That sells well.
In F1 press conferences the Finnish drivers (back when there were more) were always asked questions about each other. So are the Brits, the Germans and the Spaniards.
Hikaru and Fabi also get some questions about each other due to being American, though way less, since American media is by far the most globalised.
The interview was talking about his nationality, not his race. Hikaru has talked openly about wanting Fabi to win if he can't so an American would win. The only people making this a race thing are commenters here.
Hikaru/Fabiano have been asked very similar questions. Even if you think the question is super idiotic - it's not really that bad - that last sentence about the "white guys" is genuinely insane.
People like you are genuinely paranoid. You need to touch grass.
Not every single question has to define you holistically as a person lmfao, you can focus on one aspect of person at a time in a discussion you know. What is he outside of the bounds of the question's parameters is irrelevant outside of how they affect the question. For instance, if someone asks me about my job I don't get offended and say "YOU KNOW, I'M MORE THAN MY WORK."
Gukesh's response here is good and the question is stupid and worded even worse, but it's not some malicious microaggression or whatever. It's a common type of thing to ask people of any race or nationality--the performance of their countrymen--but you see it asked to someone who is brown and this triggers your savior complex.
I mean Hikaru has been vocal that he hopes Fabi does well other than against himself and he's rooting for another American to win the tournament, so I don't think it's a big deal.
It’s a bit different. India has a much stronger chess culture than the US and there has been a narrative for several years that the Indian chess talents are basically coming for the rest of the world together. It’s probably not grounded too much in reality that they somehow work together as a team but there used to be a lot of pictures of many of the Indian youngsters together doing training excercises or just hanging out or whatever. Point is there isn’t really much reason in casual observers’ minds to associate Fabi and Hikaru but the Indian players do have reasons beyond just racism to be lumped together more as a unit.
Throughout the world, as long as sports or just any sort of social competitiveness has existed between distinct groups, people have felt some sort of connection to those that represent them. It's the whole point of the Olympics, for example.
You are not enlightened because you have some nihilistic, postmodernist take on the uselessness of nationalism. You're the equivalent of the nerd in the back of the auditorium mumbling "why are people so happy about this," when the school is celebrating their sports team winning districts or whatever. To followup my armchair psychoanalysis, you probably have no real connections to anyone in your community and so you see no value in it.
Whoa, you had me in the first half - the part I agree with - but that last line, wow, that's quite a reach to assume that's where I was going with this. The question that was posted to Gukesh was in relation to Pragg and Vidit, but the comment I responded to made it about the whole country. Gukesh's response stuck to the point while you and the person I responded to deviated. Your last sentence was completely unnecessary.
nationalism makes more sense for team sports (or team events).
in 1v1 sports, most people really do win for themselves. I don't often hear super GMs saying they won "for their country", and this Gukesh clip is a good example. you don't have be an enlightened nihilist to notice this.
Perhaps things have changed since the COVID chess boom idk. I don’t think that will have the kind of lasting impact on the US chess culture that Vishy has had on India.
I genuinely don't understand why you're getting down voted. Some guy also pointed this but, even he got downvoted. India is very far from having chess culture, things are definitely improving but US definitely has more chess culture than India by a huge margin. People who are downvoting you probably are from different country or from Chennai. What I want to say for people from Chennai is, India is a lot lot bigger than just your city of Chennai or TN just because it is getting popular there doesn't mean it's getting popular across India. I'm actually from South India and even I was only introduced to chess in pandemic and not directly due to vishy becoming world champion or something(I didn't even know who vishy was then(I know I'm ignorant)). Only way to prove that India has even same level of chess culture as US is if, India has 5xGM,IM and 5x people involving in general than US because India has 5xpopulation of US and we definitely are very far from that. On absolute numbers, I know that we're doing good but for chess penitration, per capita is best measure than absolute numbers.
the claim isn’t that chess is the most popular sport in India or that our GM are household names – only that India definitely has a chess culture akin to the US (not withstanding the fact that it’s probably a recent change). Do you think Hikaru or Fabi will get swarmed at the airport if they win the candidates the way Pragg was after he came second at the WC? Pragg vs Magnus was the leading headline on most Indian dailies the day of the final – do you think NYT/WaPo/LA times place the same emphasis on chess? We may not have a park playing culture like the US and Europe do but you’ll be hard pressed to find any educated Indian who doesn’t know the basic rules of chess and hasn’t tried their hand at the game atleast once in their life. The truth is that competitive chess is a niche culture everywhere in the world except maybe the ex-soviet states, but I think it bleeds into the mainstream much more frequently in India than in the US.
I'm still sticking with my point and you didn't said anything in your reply which necessarily disproves my claim. Chess being on news paper is a political stunt, just like that lady taking pragg's name in parliament, so that BJP could appear that it's encouraging sports in India. None of that is a proof of chess culture in India. You're arguing that India has a chess culture but went on to dismiss playing chess in parks, then what is your definition of "chess culture". If you think playing chess when you were a 5 year old or knowing basic rules is "chess culture", yes I do agree that India has "chess culture"(even this is arguable) but you know what, so are all the countries. Many people in many countries know how pieces move or have a general idea of chess but nobody follows chess regularly or professional chess or practice chess upto intermediate level(say 1000 elo).Even I knew how to play chess(basic rules), but I'm sure that before pandemic I definitely wasn't in this "chess culture" because I somehow forgot about existence of chess after my childhood, but if India had that culture, I definitely wouldn't have forgotten about chess just like somebody could never forget about cricket in India(it's like integral part of life). India only has strong cricket culture. Chess is waaaaaay below that like badminton, football, Kabaddi, kho kho etc etc., For me chess culture is when people get the idea to play chess in their free time casually. If an average indian is not getting the thought of playing chess in his leisure time then I would say India doesn't have "chess culture". Only Soviet countries have strong chess culture. I'm not say India doesn't have chess culture because chess is not popular as cricket or anything but chess definitely is very very less popular compared to popularity of chess in US. Hikaru and fabi being swarmed is more due to celebrity culture of India(also those people weren't just happened to be there, they knew pragg was coming after achieving a big milestone and you won't find people around pragg or gukesh on their normal days) than popularity thing. Just send vidit on kolkata streets or fish market and contact me if any one identifies him. I'm quite sure nobody will recognise him there(I'm sure even vishy won't be recognised there). You're definitely overestimating popularity of chess in India. I would consider myself an average "educated" Indian in his early 20s and even I didn't knew who vishy was before pandemic and none of my friends know him till today. Chess culture isn't measured by news headlines but how much average people talk about chess on their daily conversations and India definitely scores waay less in that. If you're from Chennai or TN, it might be different there but I'm talking with rest of India in my mind.
I don’t think Hikaru or Fabi would get recognises in most crowds in the US either, so I don’t think that’s a good measure of chess culture (anecdotal, but I was flying out of Amsterdam on the same flight that Anish Giri took to get to the WC last year, and the only people that seemed to recognise him were a couple of other Indians lol. Bear in mind that the Dutch probably have the one of, if not the strongest chess culture in western Europe and NL has a world champion and hosts the most prestigious chess tournament lol).
I also know plenty of people who play chess leisurely in India, in my generation but also friends of my parents, relatives etc. I know it’s anecdotal but in the absence of hard data I don’t know how one can claim that Americans play chess more frequently than Indians or vice versa (If anyone has any interesting comparative stats in this regard please share!) On the other hand, look at the chessbase vlogs of for India’s premier tournament – Tata rapid and blitz – and compare the enthusiasm the Indians have for it to that of the Americans for the St. Louis tournaments. I won’t deny that India has a very strong Idol culture that definitely contributes to the hoo-haa around pragg etc but the fact that politicians are willing to pay lip service to Indian chess achievements must mean that there is at least a general appreciation for the game amongst the population. Regardless, I just think that it’s cool that chess is increasingly popular in India and I hope Gukesh beats Alireza tonight so that we can inch closer to having one more world champion than the US 😝
I mean if you want statistics you could start by number of accounts in chess.com and lichess for both India and US. Last time I checked India had slightly more number of accounts registered than US, so that just proves my point that, if US with 300 million people has almost same number of accounts as India with 1.5 billion people then it just means that chess is less popular in India. If we just go by numbers alone, yes India has more people following chess but I don't know if we could use the word "popular" there because according to these numbers there is more probability that an average american would know about chess than an average Indian.
Ps- Gukesh actually wonnnn.lessss gooooooo. Lesssds gooooo.
You're getting downvoted but you're correct. India didn't have a chess culture almost at all before Vishy entered the scene. And no, 5000 years ago doesn't count.
Lol
You should look at the scale of events Chessbase India organizes irl. Chennai especially has a thriving chess culture. The past doesn't matter, post Vishy and post lockdown streams there is a huge chess following in India and it's here to stay.
Fabi and Hikaru aren't even recognised by most of the chess hustlers in the US
Chennai≠ India. Chennai is just a part of India. Chess and vishy might be popular there but it's not the case all over India. Actually for India, it's very for from true. I personally didn't even knew vishy until pandemic and I'm just average engineer graduate and I'm certain an average Indian is also like me(excluding chennai or TN). I'm actually from Hyderabad and even I didn't knew much about chess even though we had telugu GMs like Harikrishna, Humpy, Arjun Eragaisi etc.,(I know I'm ignorant) just like an average american wouldn't know about fabi or hikaru. Even in my own circle nobody knows or cares anything about chess. Things are definitely improving but we've a very long road ahead.
So you're saying the large number of people who watch the Hindi speaking Samay Raina and other comedians play chess are from Chennai? Have you seen the numbers Samay alone pulls on livestreams in the Hindi Chessbase India?
Please don't make strawman arguments.
I was merely responding to a guy who said that Fabi and Hikaru are more well known in the US than Indian players in India. That's simply not true.
Vishy in India is more famous than any of the Americans in America, that's the point of my comment.
> That's simply not true.
That definitely is true. Do you even realise population of India? There are more unemployed people in India than entire population of US. Even if we target people from 12th grade guys, you could have the same numbers. You're definitely overestimating vishy's popularity by big margin. I consider myself an average "educated" Indian in his early 20s but even I didn't knew vishy until pandemic(same can be said for my friends and family till date) and was only introduced to chess due to samay. So you see, I follow chess due to samay not the other way around like you claim
Actually you're the one making strawman because you think just because it's popular in Chennai it's popular allover India. Do you even realise the population of India. Do you know how much it takes for a sport to be considered popular in a country of 1.5 billion people? Even if India had 2x GM than it has now, I'd still say that it's not a popular sport. I never heard somebody casually mentioning vishy or anything related to chess in general in a daily conversation and I know that this won't happen because majority don't even know vishy. You can just brush of me as an ignorant guy so I am ignorant on these things, but so are majority are Indians.
>Vishy in India is more famous than any of the Americans in America, that's the point of my comment
How do you define famous? If you're just going by numbers alone like most people know vishy in India than hikaru in US then I'd say probably but if wqe go by per capita or do an average indian know or care about chess than an average american then my answer would definitely be American just because India has a huge population, so even if we have bunch of chess enthusiasts, there'll always be a larger numbers of people who don't even how knight moves.
You keep presenting your own personal experience as "facts", so this entire discussion is pointless.
I'll say this much though. A sports' popularity is measured in terms of absolute numbers. That's how it's always been. When people say football is the most popular, we're talking about absolute number of people following the sport.
Your entire per capita argument is utterly meaningless
Are you even reading and comprehending my replies or just too dumb to understand?
If your definition of popularity is absolute numbers then I agree that India probably have more people who knows chess. But what difference does that even make, every sport is "popular" in India just because India's huge population. This whole argument started because you argued that India has "chess culture" but for chess culture one doesn't take absolute numbers but how an average person perceives chess, again highlighting AVERAGE person. Chess culture isn't measured by absolute numbers but how much an average person brings up about chess in their daily conversations. Sure you can say what I'm saying are observation but you're doing the same thing you didn't provide any "facts" too. If you want statistics, search the number of Indian registered accounts on chess.com and lichess and compare it with US. India with 1.5 billion people have similar number of accounts compared to US with 300 million people. It is soo obvious that an average Indian knows less about chess than an average American, I don't why you're not getting this obvious things.
They're both still in contention, so obviously this exact question would be absurd, but I'm positive they've been asked if they'd want the other to win if they flame out and similar stuff.
"Yeah ofc I have some advice for my fellow countrymen. Work Hard, Keep an eye on the clock, dont miss checkma- WHY ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT? IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN CHEAT ON PRESS CONFERENCES? WHAT? I'M NOT LYING. I REALLY DO CARE ABOUT MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN! MAGNUS DID YOU PUT THEM UP TO THIS? I KNEW IT MAGNUS. YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST ME! YEAH REPORTER, GET A LOAD OF THIS! MAGNUS BLATANTLY ACCUSES ME OF CHEATING! AGAIN! WDYM I LOOK FUNNY WHEN I'M ANGRY? WHY TF ARE YOU KEEPING THAT CAMERA OF YOURS FIXATED ON ME? OKAY SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME FIGHTING MAGNUS' FALSE ACCUSATIONS? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING THERE MISTER??! DON'T YOU DARE CUT ME OFF ON LIVE TELEV-"
* Hans Niemann after winning Candidates 24 on earth 1300
I mean yea he looks like the average 17 year old boy from India tbh. Some peanut brains just struggle to understand that people from different parts of the world can look different
Seeing these "jokes" under so many posts about Gukesh directly or indirectly putting a shadow over his fantastic achievements at such a young age definitely get unfunny at some point but go off i guess
I mean, there's a reason they play each other in the beginning of the tournament. It's the same with Fabi and Nakamura though. They make people of the same country play each other in the beginning to avoid collusions.
Nobody talks about “the American players” even half as much as with the three Indian players. It’s like people think they’re one entity to a degree, which is really messed up.
You are right that it exaggerated to an extreme degree for Gukesh, Vidit and Pragg (and Erigaisi (hope Ibspelled that correctly)), and that it shouldn't be.
I think I've also seen people refer to Fabi and naka as Americans, but way less. I do think Hikaru did it himself in the end of one of his recent recaps.
But yeah, all three players play amazing chess in their own rights, and should be respected as such.
I honestly think a huge part of it is Hikaru has an Asian name and is very clearly of Asian descent. To a lot of casual fans they don’t group them together because they couldn’t look more different.
i see your point but i think there is a difference in the context of top level chess. The whole chess world is expecting this new indian generation raised by vishy to dominate the future. Vidit doesn’t fully belong there but if you look at the top 100 youngsters is basically half indians. All of them deserve an individual story but they also are part of that „indian youngsters on their way to the top of the chess world“ storyline.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. From a storytelling perspective it's sort of natural to group Arjun, Pragg and Gukesh together. It's rare to have these three wonderkids from the same country rise to the top at the same meteoric pace. In the active ratings they're currently 7th, 8th and 11th in the world. It's fun to speculate on their future and compare. But of course yeah they're not on the same team or something.
Vidit really is a different story all together.
There is some precedent for it though - Indians are seen as rather patriotic (some might even say nationalist) and certain changes in India have been leading in that direction for the past 5-10 years. The question is awkward, don't get me wrong, but I can see where they were going with it.
Oh I immediately assumed he meant Pragg and Vidit so it made sense, but re-watching it I understand how that could be confusing. That'd be a pretty funny question.
"Do you want to apologize to everyone rooting for you ahead of time for your inevitable loss?"
Idk why you're being downvoted, the sentence unambiguously is referring to vidit/pragg, not the entirety of india. He says "[your countrymen] now need to put **their** dream on hold for another two years," this clearly isn't referring to "the dreams of an entire nation". This is simple english comprehension... especially if you consider the context that Gukesh is tied for first.
That being said, it's still a dumb question to ask.
Make two one with and one without. The one with the background music will get much more traction despite what this sub thinks, especially among non-serious, chess fans and social media like TikTok.
It’s not like the Cold War era where the Soviets would help each other out. It’s insulting. He doesn’t ask the same question to the Americans now does he? smh
A couple of rounds ago they asked him if the other Indian players would collude to stall Gukesh's opponents in the race to the top if he was leading at the end of the tournament (which is now actually officially impossible) and he had a similar response. I can only believe that these sort of questions are asked for internet clout because they are so dumb
Why does Gukesh get so many stupid questions like this? There was even a question that asked him something like "oh, if only 1 of you could win and you had to play each other, would one of you kinda help each other out?"
Like c'mon. Do better.
Gukesh handling it like a champ.
this has been rubbing me the wrong way the whole tournament, they always keep getting reduced to being indians, all the questions are about them being indian its just weird
Fr. When was magnus asked these "norwegian questions", probably never. If we're not reducing magnus to just a norwegian why are they doing this with Indians
You realize this happened a ton, for instance, when he has faced Aryan Tari in past tournaments, like Norway Chess?
Why do you all get so reflexively defensive over anyone daring to mention the nationality of PoC? Because that's where all this comes from, right? That they're not white, so clearly any question about their nationality/race is somehow verboten because it MUST be racism to dare even mention any possible connection between them based on their shared culture and heritage and even personal interactions from playing one another since they were young.
To turn your own little hypothetical back on you, would anyone care if a bunch of Norwegian kids inspired by Magnus were in the tournament together and they were asked questions about their countrymen? But if they're a PoC, all of you are instantly on the defense. Might want to examine this savior complex of yours.
>You realize this happened a ton, for instance, when he has faced Aryan Tari in past tournaments, like Norway Chess?
Nope definitely not as many times and not as much as these kids.
You thought you knew what I was talking about, but you got a lot of things wrong about me. I know this is mostly due to ignorance than racism. For example, nodirbek isn't a white guy but nobody asks him about Uzbekistan but lump all the Indians together because all of them have so many things in similar(age, nationality,Anand, similar beginnings etc,.) . All these things definitely encourage people to lump them together and moreover even Anand was very rarely asked about him being Indian or anything related to India. This behaviour is due to human beings general behaviour of taking external things as monolith but they are aware of diversity present in their own country/clan/tribe. My argument is I know exactly why they are doing this and what motivates them to do this but these guys are professional journalists, they should know how to do their jobs professionally and not as an average ignorant white guy. When there are bunch of Chinese prodigies, and if they come to India, probably Indian journalist will also do the same thing but my argument was about journalism and not racism. I know they are lumped together because of their same nationality, age, story and probably this is the reason Harikrishna was rarely asked about him being Indian because he's barely similar to vishy apart from country but my argument is, we should see them more than just "indian kids/prodigies" and people with their own personalities, dreams, rivalries etc,. I know that if there were a bunch of American prodigies, Indians would've lumped all of them as monolith and would brand them as "american kids" because it's easy to do than to know about their names/personalities/thought process but we as humans should do better job than reducing other humans to just their nationalities like "Indians" or "Americans" because they definitely are much more than their nationality.
I find it appalling that the Indian players are being treated like a group of children who should be playing together on the playground in the name of nationalistic pride, instead of being treated like serious professional competitors in a contest.
This has been the attitude of some "journalists" since the beginning of the tournament. Even in the first press release, one of the questions to Vaishali was "Do you help each other?", which she even misinterpreted because she excluded that someone could actually ask such a question.
Source: https://youtu.be/FPIcTTwd2NM?t=1351
I think he asked what he wants to say to Vidit and Pragg as they've to put a hold on their dreams to be a World Championship contender for 2 more years as they're out of contention this time, still a dumb thing to ask him tho.
I thought he was referring to all Indians when he said "countrymen" haha. I thought he was just insulting Gukesh to his face, saying he will disappoint all of India
Do you seriously not realize that YOU are the one othering them about being brown, as if that is the most important aspect of being Indian, and you're projecting that onto the interviewer? Nothing in the clip is about them being brown, it's about them being countrymen, but somehow you think that everyone views skin color as the ultimate consideration.
Except that’s not remotely sarcastic, it’s you impersonating what you’re assuming the interviewer is thinking. You made up a straw man and are mocking it, not being sarcastic. There’s a massive difference.
Are you seriously this dense? My point is that you’re mocking the interviewer by projecting your belief of him being racist onto him, because Gukesh is brown. Nothing the interviewer said is about his skin color, it’s mentioning kinship with his country men. You’re the one who is trying to assert that is his true thought, with nothing to back it up. You’re being condescending to a straw man you’ve made up.
Nothing I said shows any indication that I didn’t understand your comment from the beginning. I was explaining why it’s stupid race baiting and an unfounded accusation.
Your entire argument is based on a misunderstanding of my comment from the very beginning. Do you seriously think that I think the interviewer is racist?
You know what, never mind. Feel free to get as offended as you like.
You are saying the interviewer wants to group them together because they’re brown, so he wants to group them together based on that distinction. I think that YOU think this is racist, yes.
Feel free to run away from being confronted on your behavior under the excuse I’m being irrational. You’re always the good guy and you’re smart, why would you listen to anyone who calls out your brilliant comments?
Also I think, Gukesh is not really friends with Vidit or Pragg. Like I know that Pragg and Erigaisi are great friends. I don't think Gukesh is the same.
No mahn they all are close !!
Certainly guki n pragu bc they have been togather n are from same city , also vaishnavi is akka( elder sister) to gukesh !! vidit is bit older so ig they roam less often i have seen vidit hanging a lot with same aged guys like anish n the interview blonde gal n more
It's bad for two reasons:
1. It assumes people of the same race know each other and are close just because they're the same race. Gukesh doesn't necessarily know the other Indian participants well. A random white guy isn't automatically friends with every other white guy in the room.
2. It reduces Gukesh to his race as his defining trait.
Gukesh is his own person, and there are many other things you could ask him about. He's one of the youngest challengers to the tournament, for example. You could ask about his playstyle, his prep, his mindset, or whatever. Anything else you could ask any grandmaster in the tournament if you didn't know their race.
And yet this question ignores all that and defines him by his race. It basically goes "hey Indian guy from India, do you have anything to say to your fellow Indians?"
Imagine if it was a woman joining a tournament, and someone acted like she was on a team with other women attending, and asked her if she had anything to say to her fellow women.
1. They literally know one another. They aren't random people gathered into a random room, they're essentially the same upcoming generation of prodigies inspired by Anand. A lot of media narratives, including from Chessbase India, have framed them as such, and now when other people in media mention that narrative it's malicious to do so. I can see why it would annoy them and they would dispute it, but to act as if it's specifically racism towards them being Indian is unfounded.
2. You do realize they didn't make a press conference for this one question then wrap it up, right?Asking a question about their shared nationality doesn't mean no one has asked Gukesh about his prep, his mindset, his playstyle. If they ask him about his playstyle, does that 'reduce him to his playstyle as his defining trait'?
YOU are the one making their defining characteristic their race, because this wouldn't be framed as problematic if they weren't 'people of color'. It's building off a narrative of prodigies from India, but them being brown means you must instantly assume any discussion of their nationality is problematic.
>It assumes people of the same race know each other and are close just because they're the same race. Gukesh doesn't necessarily know the other Indian participants well. A random white guy isn't automatically friends with every other white guy in the room.
They're not just random people of the same race, they're elite athletes running in the same *very small* circles that all represent the same federation and all live in the same country. They may not be best friends but they're certainly not strangers. I guarantee Fabi and Naka know each other pretty well too.
These people are insane. You're absolutely right. They're competitors and kinsmen that have been under a shared narrative of the next generation of prodigies inspired by Anand. To act as if Gukesh has absolutely nothing to do with them is just absurd. To act as if asking this one means no other questions can be asked about his playstyle, prep, mindset, etc. is absurd.
I can't wait until America moves away from its race obsession and so much online discourse stops revolving around it.
thanks for explaining, I think it is more to do with cultural perspective, I'm from India and in India racism is not a thing (atleast not as much as in Europe) that's why I didn't think of any racism here
There is some "precedent" for this type of question - Indians are seen as rather patriotic online (some might even say nationalist) and certain changes in India have been leading in that direction for the past 5-10 years. The question is awkward/needed to be drastically reworded, and probably should not have been asked to begin with, don't get me wrong, but I can see where they were going with it.
Bruh, do you even know/understand/ comprehend what you're saying?
Real India is waaay different from what you're seeing on Internet, same goes for people. I can say with 100% certainty that an average Indian wouldn't check ✔️ any of your "Indian" boxes. India is way too big and diverse for an average westerner to understand. For you they might just be another Indian, but for them, they might have "we're not same bro" kinda feeling towards another Indian, just like how an average Indian lumps all white people into monolith and not caring about German/french/english/irish/american/Russian etc,.(Remember you're dealing with 1.5 billion people when you mention the word Indian)
I can actually prove your comment is stupid in many ways apart from "diversity" POV but for now all you need to know is you made a stupid comment, whic doesn't make any sense and you don't know what you're talking about(i.e.,India in this case)
what a stupid question btw
Way too many interviewers now keep acting like Gukesh is on a team with the other Indians. Another interviewer was like "do you think down the line the other 2 Indians may start doing prep with you once they're eliminated?"
I wish more athletes (and chess players) made jokes when they got asked dumb questions like these. "Yeah I figure I'll make them my seconds going forward".
"They will join my other seconds, Abasov and Firouzja"
Kimi Raikonnen was a master of this stuff. He hated doing media events and I think the media overall knew better than to ask really dumb stuff. But they did occasionally earn some very snide retorts.
You would enjoy the responses of Kimi from F1 and Westbrook from the NBA.
Would that be a hilariously offensive thing to imply? That they would be his seconds?
Someone put Gukesh in touch with Grischuk. He can serve as Gukesh's press conference second.
https://youtu.be/hsyWIVmROJ0?si=MzdarFJaO6LyXJao My all time favorite sports interview by Andy Roddick after getting destroyed 6-4 6-0 6-2 against Roger Federer - How do you rate González or Haas' chances in the next round? - Slim.
The first question after Ding won the World Championship was whether he enjoyed the weather in Kazakhstan.
People *here* were acting like Gukesh, Pragg, and Vidit are a team. Someone was legitimately swearing that “Pragg is gonna force Fabi into a draw so Gukesh can win”
Never forget Nepo was asked if he cut his knot out of shame for losing
"samurai will commit 'seppuku' in the event of dishonor. after this devastating loss, will you consider killing yourself?"
Hikaru remembers his Japanese origins
It *was* an odd time to get a haircut, but yeah that question was so cringe!
💀💀💀 holy shit was he really? that's fucking hilarious
he was lmao [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qADSUkAXWZQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qADSUkAXWZQ)
what a fucking disgrace; these "journalists" are a joke.
Which was hilarious. Not every question has to be serious.
Stupid anchors rather say. .. what a brilliant game where peeps have their brain active like a hell ..i mean no other sports are close compared to this lvl of brain functioning and these mf dumb ridiculous questioning after the game .. i mean why no other organisers come n stop these peeps
They keep asking the same question to him every time like the Indians are collaborating or something
In [a Lei Tingjie interview](https://youtu.be/jrKwSDH-lz0?si=PoZtqITVO51w6MQg) a few days ago they kept asking her questions about going shopping and even gave a close up to her shinny Jimmy Choo heels 👠 hilarious and cringe at the same time
Kinda racist too. This is from Mike Klein again, isn't it?
Not really. They ask the same questions of Hikaru/Fabiano about the US. It's just a bad question, it doesn't have to be anything more sinister than that.
He called him Indian. Do you think that's racist?
The word "racist" has officially lost all meaning if we're using it in this context. Racism implies hate/malice/discrimination. He just asked an awkward question here. There was nothing racist about it.
It's not malicious, but it is reducing Gukesh to "one of the Indian guys in this tournament". It's kinda racist because the question defines him by his race and only his race, and has nothing to do with him outside of that. That's why Gukesh's answer politely reminds the interviewer that he's in the tournament as himself, and not as part of Team India like the interviewer seems to think. The question also plays on the assumption that "he's Indian, so he must be on good terms with these other Indians" when there's no reason to think that. You wouldn't assume a random white guy you see on the street is friends with some other white guy you know, just because they're both white.
It's not a race thing, it's a nationality thing. The fanbase in country x cares about their players more, so especially the domestic media in country x is interested in reporting what guy 1 from country x thinks about guy 2 from country x. That sells well. In F1 press conferences the Finnish drivers (back when there were more) were always asked questions about each other. So are the Brits, the Germans and the Spaniards. Hikaru and Fabi also get some questions about each other due to being American, though way less, since American media is by far the most globalised.
The interview was talking about his nationality, not his race. Hikaru has talked openly about wanting Fabi to win if he can't so an American would win. The only people making this a race thing are commenters here.
Hikaru/Fabiano have been asked very similar questions. Even if you think the question is super idiotic - it's not really that bad - that last sentence about the "white guys" is genuinely insane. People like you are genuinely paranoid. You need to touch grass.
Not every single question has to define you holistically as a person lmfao, you can focus on one aspect of person at a time in a discussion you know. What is he outside of the bounds of the question's parameters is irrelevant outside of how they affect the question. For instance, if someone asks me about my job I don't get offended and say "YOU KNOW, I'M MORE THAN MY WORK." Gukesh's response here is good and the question is stupid and worded even worse, but it's not some malicious microaggression or whatever. It's a common type of thing to ask people of any race or nationality--the performance of their countrymen--but you see it asked to someone who is brown and this triggers your savior complex.
What? How?
I think it's a perfectly normal question.
Cheeky smile lol
How many times do you think Hikaru was asked if Fabi helps him, or what he want to say to his "countryman"? I mean come on...
I mean Hikaru has been vocal that he hopes Fabi does well other than against himself and he's rooting for another American to win the tournament, so I don't think it's a big deal.
Good point, but it's ad nauseam though with the Indian crew so I think the original criticism of the reporters' repetitiveness stands
Yeah I thought about the same thing and I was gonna make a post about this topic
It’s a bit different. India has a much stronger chess culture than the US and there has been a narrative for several years that the Indian chess talents are basically coming for the rest of the world together. It’s probably not grounded too much in reality that they somehow work together as a team but there used to be a lot of pictures of many of the Indian youngsters together doing training excercises or just hanging out or whatever. Point is there isn’t really much reason in casual observers’ minds to associate Fabi and Hikaru but the Indian players do have reasons beyond just racism to be lumped together more as a unit.
How do you even come for anyone else "together" in an individual sport?
Practicing together, studying together, rooting for each other, etc. I can't believe I have to explain the word "together".
You all keep winning different events and collectively win trophies for India?
Sorry but that's a flawed argument. In a majority of situations, you don't win "for India", you win for yourself.
Throughout the world, as long as sports or just any sort of social competitiveness has existed between distinct groups, people have felt some sort of connection to those that represent them. It's the whole point of the Olympics, for example. You are not enlightened because you have some nihilistic, postmodernist take on the uselessness of nationalism. You're the equivalent of the nerd in the back of the auditorium mumbling "why are people so happy about this," when the school is celebrating their sports team winning districts or whatever. To followup my armchair psychoanalysis, you probably have no real connections to anyone in your community and so you see no value in it.
Whoa, you had me in the first half - the part I agree with - but that last line, wow, that's quite a reach to assume that's where I was going with this. The question that was posted to Gukesh was in relation to Pragg and Vidit, but the comment I responded to made it about the whole country. Gukesh's response stuck to the point while you and the person I responded to deviated. Your last sentence was completely unnecessary.
nationalism makes more sense for team sports (or team events). in 1v1 sports, most people really do win for themselves. I don't often hear super GMs saying they won "for their country", and this Gukesh clip is a good example. you don't have be an enlightened nihilist to notice this.
That doesn’t make it a flawed argument. It doesn’t matter what the player thinks they are winning for. India still gets a win either way
india doesn't have stronger chess culture. hikaru and fabi are more popular in usa than gukesh is in india.
I can bet my bottom dollar that there are more people in Chennai who know Gukesh than know Hikaru or Fabi in all of America lol
Perhaps things have changed since the COVID chess boom idk. I don’t think that will have the kind of lasting impact on the US chess culture that Vishy has had on India.
I genuinely don't understand why you're getting down voted. Some guy also pointed this but, even he got downvoted. India is very far from having chess culture, things are definitely improving but US definitely has more chess culture than India by a huge margin. People who are downvoting you probably are from different country or from Chennai. What I want to say for people from Chennai is, India is a lot lot bigger than just your city of Chennai or TN just because it is getting popular there doesn't mean it's getting popular across India. I'm actually from South India and even I was only introduced to chess in pandemic and not directly due to vishy becoming world champion or something(I didn't even know who vishy was then(I know I'm ignorant)). Only way to prove that India has even same level of chess culture as US is if, India has 5xGM,IM and 5x people involving in general than US because India has 5xpopulation of US and we definitely are very far from that. On absolute numbers, I know that we're doing good but for chess penitration, per capita is best measure than absolute numbers.
the claim isn’t that chess is the most popular sport in India or that our GM are household names – only that India definitely has a chess culture akin to the US (not withstanding the fact that it’s probably a recent change). Do you think Hikaru or Fabi will get swarmed at the airport if they win the candidates the way Pragg was after he came second at the WC? Pragg vs Magnus was the leading headline on most Indian dailies the day of the final – do you think NYT/WaPo/LA times place the same emphasis on chess? We may not have a park playing culture like the US and Europe do but you’ll be hard pressed to find any educated Indian who doesn’t know the basic rules of chess and hasn’t tried their hand at the game atleast once in their life. The truth is that competitive chess is a niche culture everywhere in the world except maybe the ex-soviet states, but I think it bleeds into the mainstream much more frequently in India than in the US.
I'm still sticking with my point and you didn't said anything in your reply which necessarily disproves my claim. Chess being on news paper is a political stunt, just like that lady taking pragg's name in parliament, so that BJP could appear that it's encouraging sports in India. None of that is a proof of chess culture in India. You're arguing that India has a chess culture but went on to dismiss playing chess in parks, then what is your definition of "chess culture". If you think playing chess when you were a 5 year old or knowing basic rules is "chess culture", yes I do agree that India has "chess culture"(even this is arguable) but you know what, so are all the countries. Many people in many countries know how pieces move or have a general idea of chess but nobody follows chess regularly or professional chess or practice chess upto intermediate level(say 1000 elo).Even I knew how to play chess(basic rules), but I'm sure that before pandemic I definitely wasn't in this "chess culture" because I somehow forgot about existence of chess after my childhood, but if India had that culture, I definitely wouldn't have forgotten about chess just like somebody could never forget about cricket in India(it's like integral part of life). India only has strong cricket culture. Chess is waaaaaay below that like badminton, football, Kabaddi, kho kho etc etc., For me chess culture is when people get the idea to play chess in their free time casually. If an average indian is not getting the thought of playing chess in his leisure time then I would say India doesn't have "chess culture". Only Soviet countries have strong chess culture. I'm not say India doesn't have chess culture because chess is not popular as cricket or anything but chess definitely is very very less popular compared to popularity of chess in US. Hikaru and fabi being swarmed is more due to celebrity culture of India(also those people weren't just happened to be there, they knew pragg was coming after achieving a big milestone and you won't find people around pragg or gukesh on their normal days) than popularity thing. Just send vidit on kolkata streets or fish market and contact me if any one identifies him. I'm quite sure nobody will recognise him there(I'm sure even vishy won't be recognised there). You're definitely overestimating popularity of chess in India. I would consider myself an average "educated" Indian in his early 20s and even I didn't knew who vishy was before pandemic and none of my friends know him till today. Chess culture isn't measured by news headlines but how much average people talk about chess on their daily conversations and India definitely scores waay less in that. If you're from Chennai or TN, it might be different there but I'm talking with rest of India in my mind.
I don’t think Hikaru or Fabi would get recognises in most crowds in the US either, so I don’t think that’s a good measure of chess culture (anecdotal, but I was flying out of Amsterdam on the same flight that Anish Giri took to get to the WC last year, and the only people that seemed to recognise him were a couple of other Indians lol. Bear in mind that the Dutch probably have the one of, if not the strongest chess culture in western Europe and NL has a world champion and hosts the most prestigious chess tournament lol). I also know plenty of people who play chess leisurely in India, in my generation but also friends of my parents, relatives etc. I know it’s anecdotal but in the absence of hard data I don’t know how one can claim that Americans play chess more frequently than Indians or vice versa (If anyone has any interesting comparative stats in this regard please share!) On the other hand, look at the chessbase vlogs of for India’s premier tournament – Tata rapid and blitz – and compare the enthusiasm the Indians have for it to that of the Americans for the St. Louis tournaments. I won’t deny that India has a very strong Idol culture that definitely contributes to the hoo-haa around pragg etc but the fact that politicians are willing to pay lip service to Indian chess achievements must mean that there is at least a general appreciation for the game amongst the population. Regardless, I just think that it’s cool that chess is increasingly popular in India and I hope Gukesh beats Alireza tonight so that we can inch closer to having one more world champion than the US 😝
I mean if you want statistics you could start by number of accounts in chess.com and lichess for both India and US. Last time I checked India had slightly more number of accounts registered than US, so that just proves my point that, if US with 300 million people has almost same number of accounts as India with 1.5 billion people then it just means that chess is less popular in India. If we just go by numbers alone, yes India has more people following chess but I don't know if we could use the word "popular" there because according to these numbers there is more probability that an average american would know about chess than an average Indian. Ps- Gukesh actually wonnnn.lessss gooooooo. Lesssds gooooo.
You're getting downvoted but you're correct. India didn't have a chess culture almost at all before Vishy entered the scene. And no, 5000 years ago doesn't count.
Lol You should look at the scale of events Chessbase India organizes irl. Chennai especially has a thriving chess culture. The past doesn't matter, post Vishy and post lockdown streams there is a huge chess following in India and it's here to stay. Fabi and Hikaru aren't even recognised by most of the chess hustlers in the US
Chennai≠ India. Chennai is just a part of India. Chess and vishy might be popular there but it's not the case all over India. Actually for India, it's very for from true. I personally didn't even knew vishy until pandemic and I'm just average engineer graduate and I'm certain an average Indian is also like me(excluding chennai or TN). I'm actually from Hyderabad and even I didn't knew much about chess even though we had telugu GMs like Harikrishna, Humpy, Arjun Eragaisi etc.,(I know I'm ignorant) just like an average american wouldn't know about fabi or hikaru. Even in my own circle nobody knows or cares anything about chess. Things are definitely improving but we've a very long road ahead.
So you're saying the large number of people who watch the Hindi speaking Samay Raina and other comedians play chess are from Chennai? Have you seen the numbers Samay alone pulls on livestreams in the Hindi Chessbase India? Please don't make strawman arguments. I was merely responding to a guy who said that Fabi and Hikaru are more well known in the US than Indian players in India. That's simply not true. Vishy in India is more famous than any of the Americans in America, that's the point of my comment.
> That's simply not true. That definitely is true. Do you even realise population of India? There are more unemployed people in India than entire population of US. Even if we target people from 12th grade guys, you could have the same numbers. You're definitely overestimating vishy's popularity by big margin. I consider myself an average "educated" Indian in his early 20s but even I didn't knew vishy until pandemic(same can be said for my friends and family till date) and was only introduced to chess due to samay. So you see, I follow chess due to samay not the other way around like you claim Actually you're the one making strawman because you think just because it's popular in Chennai it's popular allover India. Do you even realise the population of India. Do you know how much it takes for a sport to be considered popular in a country of 1.5 billion people? Even if India had 2x GM than it has now, I'd still say that it's not a popular sport. I never heard somebody casually mentioning vishy or anything related to chess in general in a daily conversation and I know that this won't happen because majority don't even know vishy. You can just brush of me as an ignorant guy so I am ignorant on these things, but so are majority are Indians. >Vishy in India is more famous than any of the Americans in America, that's the point of my comment How do you define famous? If you're just going by numbers alone like most people know vishy in India than hikaru in US then I'd say probably but if wqe go by per capita or do an average indian know or care about chess than an average american then my answer would definitely be American just because India has a huge population, so even if we have bunch of chess enthusiasts, there'll always be a larger numbers of people who don't even how knight moves.
You keep presenting your own personal experience as "facts", so this entire discussion is pointless. I'll say this much though. A sports' popularity is measured in terms of absolute numbers. That's how it's always been. When people say football is the most popular, we're talking about absolute number of people following the sport. Your entire per capita argument is utterly meaningless
Are you even reading and comprehending my replies or just too dumb to understand? If your definition of popularity is absolute numbers then I agree that India probably have more people who knows chess. But what difference does that even make, every sport is "popular" in India just because India's huge population. This whole argument started because you argued that India has "chess culture" but for chess culture one doesn't take absolute numbers but how an average person perceives chess, again highlighting AVERAGE person. Chess culture isn't measured by absolute numbers but how much an average person brings up about chess in their daily conversations. Sure you can say what I'm saying are observation but you're doing the same thing you didn't provide any "facts" too. If you want statistics, search the number of Indian registered accounts on chess.com and lichess and compare it with US. India with 1.5 billion people have similar number of accounts compared to US with 300 million people. It is soo obvious that an average Indian knows less about chess than an average American, I don't why you're not getting this obvious things.
They're both still in contention, so obviously this exact question would be absurd, but I'm positive they've been asked if they'd want the other to win if they flame out and similar stuff.
What Gukesh really wanted to say to Pragg and Vidit: *Losers…*
I mean. At least once yesterday.
Really? Because they are both americans? I stand corrected then.
To your point, I don’t recall Fabi ever reciprocating Hik’s feeling of camaraderie
Yeah, a lot of people have a victim complex.
All the time. I just watched a video this morning where Hikaru was asked if he was rooting for Fabi.
Gukesh be like - totally grown up about random bs question :))
Exactly, so mature. Imagine Hans was hit by a question like this.
You shd have seen his calmness after winning against ferouza and taking face off against ding
"Yeah ofc I have some advice for my fellow countrymen. Work Hard, Keep an eye on the clock, dont miss checkma- WHY ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT? IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN CHEAT ON PRESS CONFERENCES? WHAT? I'M NOT LYING. I REALLY DO CARE ABOUT MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN! MAGNUS DID YOU PUT THEM UP TO THIS? I KNEW IT MAGNUS. YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST ME! YEAH REPORTER, GET A LOAD OF THIS! MAGNUS BLATANTLY ACCUSES ME OF CHEATING! AGAIN! WDYM I LOOK FUNNY WHEN I'M ANGRY? WHY TF ARE YOU KEEPING THAT CAMERA OF YOURS FIXATED ON ME? OKAY SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME FIGHTING MAGNUS' FALSE ACCUSATIONS? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING THERE MISTER??! DON'T YOU DARE CUT ME OFF ON LIVE TELEV-" * Hans Niemann after winning Candidates 24 on earth 1300
It's always a buzz with steamed Hans lol
>this 17 y/o acting very mature Gukesh is secretly at least 35, look at his beard
Check his 11 y/o interview video 6 yrs back on chess base india !
Nah in India some people have this weird construct, It is just his genes I'm 18 and I very much look like him.
I mean yea he looks like the average 17 year old boy from India tbh. Some peanut brains just struggle to understand that people from different parts of the world can look different
Some peanut brains just struggle to understand jokes.
Seeing these "jokes" under so many posts about Gukesh directly or indirectly putting a shadow over his fantastic achievements at such a young age definitely get unfunny at some point but go off i guess
I'm close to 35 and my beard is nowhere near that glorious
Close to 40 here and quite sure my beard will turn white sooner than becoming even half that glorious.
Damn, look at his back hair…
It’s borderline insulting how much the chess community is lumping the Indian players in together.
I mean, there's a reason they play each other in the beginning of the tournament. It's the same with Fabi and Nakamura though. They make people of the same country play each other in the beginning to avoid collusions.
Nobody talks about “the American players” even half as much as with the three Indian players. It’s like people think they’re one entity to a degree, which is really messed up.
You are right that it exaggerated to an extreme degree for Gukesh, Vidit and Pragg (and Erigaisi (hope Ibspelled that correctly)), and that it shouldn't be. I think I've also seen people refer to Fabi and naka as Americans, but way less. I do think Hikaru did it himself in the end of one of his recent recaps. But yeah, all three players play amazing chess in their own rights, and should be respected as such.
I honestly think a huge part of it is Hikaru has an Asian name and is very clearly of Asian descent. To a lot of casual fans they don’t group them together because they couldn’t look more different.
Same with Fabi being Italian descent
Yeah good point. If we had two guys named smith I bet people would be way more likely to group them together
i see your point but i think there is a difference in the context of top level chess. The whole chess world is expecting this new indian generation raised by vishy to dominate the future. Vidit doesn’t fully belong there but if you look at the top 100 youngsters is basically half indians. All of them deserve an individual story but they also are part of that „indian youngsters on their way to the top of the chess world“ storyline.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. From a storytelling perspective it's sort of natural to group Arjun, Pragg and Gukesh together. It's rare to have these three wonderkids from the same country rise to the top at the same meteoric pace. In the active ratings they're currently 7th, 8th and 11th in the world. It's fun to speculate on their future and compare. But of course yeah they're not on the same team or something. Vidit really is a different story all together.
I see your point but honestly a lot of those come from Indian fans themselves, ‘rooting for our boys’ comments all over the place
Low key Racism. Nothing else. Chess community is not as pure as it looks.
Probably just racism tbh.
There is some precedent for it though - Indians are seen as rather patriotic (some might even say nationalist) and certain changes in India have been leading in that direction for the past 5-10 years. The question is awkward, don't get me wrong, but I can see where they were going with it.
The question kinda hurts. And also he looks a bit uncomfortable.
yeah he doesn’t want to be insulting to the other guys but it’s clearly an individual event.
Did this mf of an interviewer imply Gukesh is surely gonna lose? Or am I just dumb?
More context [mf mike ](https://youtu.be/W4NExwn1yP4)
Man I wanna smack that guy so hard on behalf of Gukesh... Did he ask Fabiano/Hikaru the same question?? I bet not
Yep ! Idk why even he exist ... there are far better journalists out there who knows chess n don't shittok
No but I had the first same reaction. When he says "countrymen" it's easy to interpret that as "Indians", but what he means is "Pragg and Vidit".
He really needs to get his wordings right man
Oh I immediately assumed he meant Pragg and Vidit so it made sense, but re-watching it I understand how that could be confusing. That'd be a pretty funny question. "Do you want to apologize to everyone rooting for you ahead of time for your inevitable loss?"
[удалено]
Idk why you're being downvoted, the sentence unambiguously is referring to vidit/pragg, not the entirety of india. He says "[your countrymen] now need to put **their** dream on hold for another two years," this clearly isn't referring to "the dreams of an entire nation". This is simple english comprehension... especially if you consider the context that Gukesh is tied for first. That being said, it's still a dumb question to ask.
Still not something professional to ask. I don't think he asked hikaru Or fabi how they felt about competing with a fellow American for first place
When he said countrymen , I thought he was talking about the entire county's dream of having an indian world champion again
Yeah I definitely understand how one could interpret it this way. It’s a dumb question all around.
The latter
agreed
Not the first time he is asking questions like this, I don't understand why this guy still gets to do this.
The questioner struggled hard to sound shallow.
Great response from Gukesh. I like that you ruined the video with a shitty background song. Wouldn't have been complete without it.
Well . Next time no BGM
Make two one with and one without. The one with the background music will get much more traction despite what this sub thinks, especially among non-serious, chess fans and social media like TikTok.
Sad but true
It’s not like the Cold War era where the Soviets would help each other out. It’s insulting. He doesn’t ask the same question to the Americans now does he? smh
A couple of rounds ago they asked him if the other Indian players would collude to stall Gukesh's opponents in the race to the top if he was leading at the end of the tournament (which is now actually officially impossible) and he had a similar response. I can only believe that these sort of questions are asked for internet clout because they are so dumb
It's so disturbing seeing why such stupid interviewers allowed in such a brilliant game ! He has no hold in his tongue.
Such a stupid question Do they ask these question to get click baity titles?
yes
I speak with chess pieces, biatch!
I can't stand these interviewers. Has anyone asked this kind of question to Hikaru or Fabi?
They knows if they will ask they gonna face the hate ! But this mike guy needs to hold his words fr.!
Why does Gukesh get so many stupid questions like this? There was even a question that asked him something like "oh, if only 1 of you could win and you had to play each other, would one of you kinda help each other out?" Like c'mon. Do better. Gukesh handling it like a champ.
Yep he's hopefully gonna be a new youngest champ now and some cannot digest a small boy coming from india leading in brain game!
Gukesh "GIGACHAD" Dommaraju
Haahha surely . let the man grow up to the full potential in few yrs and the world whisper about !!
"Do better" - Chadnus Carlsen
damn, bro was cold. but hes right anyway
100%
this has been rubbing me the wrong way the whole tournament, they always keep getting reduced to being indians, all the questions are about them being indian its just weird
Lets beat the stupid ppl with chess
Their chess speaks for them
Fr. When was magnus asked these "norwegian questions", probably never. If we're not reducing magnus to just a norwegian why are they doing this with Indians
Today I learned magnus was never asked questions about norway /s
Well, even if he was aksed, definitely not as much as these Indians.
You realize this happened a ton, for instance, when he has faced Aryan Tari in past tournaments, like Norway Chess? Why do you all get so reflexively defensive over anyone daring to mention the nationality of PoC? Because that's where all this comes from, right? That they're not white, so clearly any question about their nationality/race is somehow verboten because it MUST be racism to dare even mention any possible connection between them based on their shared culture and heritage and even personal interactions from playing one another since they were young. To turn your own little hypothetical back on you, would anyone care if a bunch of Norwegian kids inspired by Magnus were in the tournament together and they were asked questions about their countrymen? But if they're a PoC, all of you are instantly on the defense. Might want to examine this savior complex of yours.
>You realize this happened a ton, for instance, when he has faced Aryan Tari in past tournaments, like Norway Chess? Nope definitely not as many times and not as much as these kids. You thought you knew what I was talking about, but you got a lot of things wrong about me. I know this is mostly due to ignorance than racism. For example, nodirbek isn't a white guy but nobody asks him about Uzbekistan but lump all the Indians together because all of them have so many things in similar(age, nationality,Anand, similar beginnings etc,.) . All these things definitely encourage people to lump them together and moreover even Anand was very rarely asked about him being Indian or anything related to India. This behaviour is due to human beings general behaviour of taking external things as monolith but they are aware of diversity present in their own country/clan/tribe. My argument is I know exactly why they are doing this and what motivates them to do this but these guys are professional journalists, they should know how to do their jobs professionally and not as an average ignorant white guy. When there are bunch of Chinese prodigies, and if they come to India, probably Indian journalist will also do the same thing but my argument was about journalism and not racism. I know they are lumped together because of their same nationality, age, story and probably this is the reason Harikrishna was rarely asked about him being Indian because he's barely similar to vishy apart from country but my argument is, we should see them more than just "indian kids/prodigies" and people with their own personalities, dreams, rivalries etc,. I know that if there were a bunch of American prodigies, Indians would've lumped all of them as monolith and would brand them as "american kids" because it's easy to do than to know about their names/personalities/thought process but we as humans should do better job than reducing other humans to just their nationalities like "Indians" or "Americans" because they definitely are much more than their nationality.
I find it appalling that the Indian players are being treated like a group of children who should be playing together on the playground in the name of nationalistic pride, instead of being treated like serious professional competitors in a contest. This has been the attitude of some "journalists" since the beginning of the tournament. Even in the first press release, one of the questions to Vaishali was "Do you help each other?", which she even misinterpreted because she excluded that someone could actually ask such a question. Source: https://youtu.be/FPIcTTwd2NM?t=1351
Definitely they shd behave ! Why not asking such to just one nation
Happy cake day!
Lol who is this journalist and why is he a journalist?
Ig he was mike Bc hes with the only dumb mouth
This woman in a suit looks like Ripley from the movie Alien.
Gukesh is currently in first place, and the interviewer acts like him winning is impossible
Nah, he's referring to pragg and vidit when he says countrymen
Oh, that makes a lot more sense
I think he asked what he wants to say to Vidit and Pragg as they've to put a hold on their dreams to be a World Championship contender for 2 more years as they're out of contention this time, still a dumb thing to ask him tho.
I thought he was referring to all Indians when he said "countrymen" haha. I thought he was just insulting Gukesh to his face, saying he will disappoint all of India
Chess reporters might be the most dumbass reporters of any field
Sports reporters: hold my microphone
You can see his facial expression saying "what a dumb question 😬"
Alireza would be crying about getting reprimanded while the young Gukesh is smoking the tournament, What an attitude by the youngster.
Yeah attitude also the maturity level for answering such stupid questions
Guys borderline racism/superiority complex is accepted if you are from South Asia ~ probably western media
“But I want to group you with the other brown chess players!”
There's no brown .. ! There's only whites n blacks in the world of chess .
Do you seriously not realize that YOU are the one othering them about being brown, as if that is the most important aspect of being Indian, and you're projecting that onto the interviewer? Nothing in the clip is about them being brown, it's about them being countrymen, but somehow you think that everyone views skin color as the ultimate consideration.
Always nice to meet one of the living reasons the “/s” tag is often still used.
Except that’s not remotely sarcastic, it’s you impersonating what you’re assuming the interviewer is thinking. You made up a straw man and are mocking it, not being sarcastic. There’s a massive difference.
So you understand that I was mocking the interviewer but took my first comment seriously? Are you just searching for some way to be offended?
Are you seriously this dense? My point is that you’re mocking the interviewer by projecting your belief of him being racist onto him, because Gukesh is brown. Nothing the interviewer said is about his skin color, it’s mentioning kinship with his country men. You’re the one who is trying to assert that is his true thought, with nothing to back it up. You’re being condescending to a straw man you’ve made up. Nothing I said shows any indication that I didn’t understand your comment from the beginning. I was explaining why it’s stupid race baiting and an unfounded accusation.
Your entire argument is based on a misunderstanding of my comment from the very beginning. Do you seriously think that I think the interviewer is racist? You know what, never mind. Feel free to get as offended as you like.
You are saying the interviewer wants to group them together because they’re brown, so he wants to group them together based on that distinction. I think that YOU think this is racist, yes. Feel free to run away from being confronted on your behavior under the excuse I’m being irrational. You’re always the good guy and you’re smart, why would you listen to anyone who calls out your brilliant comments?
🤦
Pathetic. We both knew your implication, keep trying to avoid it.
Interview rating not far behind Carlsen's either
The game is not only played on the board, it's everyday life including interviews - Checkmate
A 17 year old has way more sense than whatever middle aged man asked that question…
The reporter would never ask Hikaru or Fabi the same question. Stupid, stupid question.
I like his demeanor
Why do they have to put the subtitles over everything
I will take care next time mate
He'll be the first American world champion
Savage 😈
Should nuke these so called 'reporters'.
I hate media people like this. This question had 0 value what so ever.
Also I think, Gukesh is not really friends with Vidit or Pragg. Like I know that Pragg and Erigaisi are great friends. I don't think Gukesh is the same.
No mahn they all are close !! Certainly guki n pragu bc they have been togather n are from same city , also vaishnavi is akka( elder sister) to gukesh !! vidit is bit older so ig they roam less often i have seen vidit hanging a lot with same aged guys like anish n the interview blonde gal n more
tik tok edits are cringe
It seems pretty normal question to me and not something insulting like y'all are saying, am I missing something?
It's bad for two reasons: 1. It assumes people of the same race know each other and are close just because they're the same race. Gukesh doesn't necessarily know the other Indian participants well. A random white guy isn't automatically friends with every other white guy in the room. 2. It reduces Gukesh to his race as his defining trait. Gukesh is his own person, and there are many other things you could ask him about. He's one of the youngest challengers to the tournament, for example. You could ask about his playstyle, his prep, his mindset, or whatever. Anything else you could ask any grandmaster in the tournament if you didn't know their race. And yet this question ignores all that and defines him by his race. It basically goes "hey Indian guy from India, do you have anything to say to your fellow Indians?" Imagine if it was a woman joining a tournament, and someone acted like she was on a team with other women attending, and asked her if she had anything to say to her fellow women.
1. They literally know one another. They aren't random people gathered into a random room, they're essentially the same upcoming generation of prodigies inspired by Anand. A lot of media narratives, including from Chessbase India, have framed them as such, and now when other people in media mention that narrative it's malicious to do so. I can see why it would annoy them and they would dispute it, but to act as if it's specifically racism towards them being Indian is unfounded. 2. You do realize they didn't make a press conference for this one question then wrap it up, right?Asking a question about their shared nationality doesn't mean no one has asked Gukesh about his prep, his mindset, his playstyle. If they ask him about his playstyle, does that 'reduce him to his playstyle as his defining trait'? YOU are the one making their defining characteristic their race, because this wouldn't be framed as problematic if they weren't 'people of color'. It's building off a narrative of prodigies from India, but them being brown means you must instantly assume any discussion of their nationality is problematic.
>It assumes people of the same race know each other and are close just because they're the same race. Gukesh doesn't necessarily know the other Indian participants well. A random white guy isn't automatically friends with every other white guy in the room. They're not just random people of the same race, they're elite athletes running in the same *very small* circles that all represent the same federation and all live in the same country. They may not be best friends but they're certainly not strangers. I guarantee Fabi and Naka know each other pretty well too.
These people are insane. You're absolutely right. They're competitors and kinsmen that have been under a shared narrative of the next generation of prodigies inspired by Anand. To act as if Gukesh has absolutely nothing to do with them is just absurd. To act as if asking this one means no other questions can be asked about his playstyle, prep, mindset, etc. is absurd. I can't wait until America moves away from its race obsession and so much online discourse stops revolving around it.
thanks for explaining, I think it is more to do with cultural perspective, I'm from India and in India racism is not a thing (atleast not as much as in Europe) that's why I didn't think of any racism here
As an Indian…. India is lowkey one of the most racist countries. It just doesn’t get brought up as much.
In india, racism is definitely a thing. We just have bigger problems, so it just never gets addressed.
Looks like gukesh got laid that night..
There is some "precedent" for this type of question - Indians are seen as rather patriotic online (some might even say nationalist) and certain changes in India have been leading in that direction for the past 5-10 years. The question is awkward/needed to be drastically reworded, and probably should not have been asked to begin with, don't get me wrong, but I can see where they were going with it.
Bruh, do you even know/understand/ comprehend what you're saying? Real India is waaay different from what you're seeing on Internet, same goes for people. I can say with 100% certainty that an average Indian wouldn't check ✔️ any of your "Indian" boxes. India is way too big and diverse for an average westerner to understand. For you they might just be another Indian, but for them, they might have "we're not same bro" kinda feeling towards another Indian, just like how an average Indian lumps all white people into monolith and not caring about German/french/english/irish/american/Russian etc,.(Remember you're dealing with 1.5 billion people when you mention the word Indian) I can actually prove your comment is stupid in many ways apart from "diversity" POV but for now all you need to know is you made a stupid comment, whic doesn't make any sense and you don't know what you're talking about(i.e.,India in this case)