Vishy Anand reviews the games of Gukesh, Pragg and all WACA mentees for the year 2023

Vishy Anand, the five-time World Champion, and a legend of the sport, decided to contribute to Indian chess in a different way towards the end of 2020. He began with the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) in collaboration with WestBridge Capital. The idea was to speed up the path to the top for the best youngsters of Indian chess. As on today (September 2023), WACA has 7 mentees - Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Leon Mendonca, R. Vaishali, Savitha Shri and Vantika Agrawal. They also have 8 talents with whom they are working at the moment - Raunak Sadhwani, Pranav V., Pranav Anand, Karthikeyan Murali, Divya Deshmukh, Rakshitta Ravi, Bhakti Kulkarni and Aditya Mittal. They 8 talents get regular group trainings from the WACA trainers.
In this video Vishy Anand goes over the games of all the mentees of the WACA along with IM Sagar Shah gives some amazing insights into their play and how these youngsters have developed as chess players.
Timestamps of the full interview:
0:00 - Hello and welcome Vishy!
0:25 - 1 year of WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy celebrations in 2022
1:00 - Gukesh's amazing year, climb to the World elite
2:16 - Anand on his favorite achievement of Gukesh in the past year
3:43 - Putting pressure on Magnus in the 2nd game of WC Quarterfinals
5:30 - Vishy analyses Gukesh's win over Andrey Esipenko in WR Masters 2023
9:43 - Gukesh versus Vishy!
10:40 - A brilliant move - can you spot it?
12:42 - The crazy Armageddon game against Magnus
14:03 - The problem with miracles
15:13 - When Gukesh battles Pragg
19:06 - Gukesh's first win against Vishy
20:17 - When Gukesh's eyes became the eval bar
22:10 - The road to Candidates
23:04 - Gukesh's work with Gajewski
24:28 - Praggnanandhaa's journey in the past year
25:54 - Pragg's powerful win over Cheparinov in Spanish League
29:08 - Vishy Anand's Bishop ending masterclass
38:54 - Nihal Sarin's solid year from 2022-2023
40:04 - Nihal's win against MVL in SCC
40:40 - Vishy praises Nihal's amazing positional chess
41:39 - Yet another fantastic win against MVL
44:17 - Epic game between Nihal and Pragg from Global Chess League
46:23 - The year in review for GM Leon Luke Mendonca
47:30 - Leon's strong win over Prraneeth with the Black pieces
49:18 - Raunak taking down Korobov in the Spanish League
50:39 - 2022-2023 for IM Vaishali Rameshbabu
51:55 - Vaishali's amazing comeback against former Women's WC
52:57 - An unbelievable turnaround against Pauline Guichard
55:20 - Winning a wild game against Sethuraman
59:02 - Looking back at the year for WGM Savitha Shri Baskar
1:00:00 - Savitha's win against a strong Grandmaster
1:01:30 - WACA's new entrant - IM Vantika Agrawal
1:02:37 - Vantika's powerful win against Prraneeth Vuppala
1:07:40 - The many talents of WACA
1:08:20 - IM Divya Deshmukh winning Tata Steel Chess India Women's Rapid
1:08:56 - The team of trainers at WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy
1:10:00 - What is next for WACA?
1:11:35 - Final thoughts and Thank you!
Video: ChessBase India
#Chess #ChessBaseIndia #WACAchess #vishyanand
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[@himankghosh2333]

Timestamps of the full interview: 0:00 - Hello and welcome Vishy! 0:25 - 1 year of WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy celebrations in 2022 1:00 - Gukesh's amazing year, climb to the World elite 2:16 - Anand on his favorite achievement of Gukesh in the past year 3:43 - Putting pressure on Magnus in the 2nd game of WC Quarterfinals 5:30 - Vishy analyses Gukesh's win over Andrey Esipenko in WR Masters 2023 9:43 - Gukesh versus Vishy! 10:40 - A brilliant move - can you spot it? 12:42 - The crazy Armageddon game against Magnus 14:03 - The problem with miracles 15:13 - When Gukesh battles Pragg 19:06 - Gukesh's first win against Vishy 20:17 - When Gukesh's eyes became the eval bar 22:10 - The road to Candidates 23:04 - Gukesh's work with Gajewski 24:28 - Praggnanandhaa's journey in the past year 25:54 - Pragg's powerful win over Cheparinov in Spanish League 29:08 - Vishy Anand's Bishop ending masterclass 38:54 - Nihal Sarin's solid year from 2022-2023 40:04 - Nihal's win against MVL in SCC 40:40 - Vishy praises Nihal's amazing positional chess 41:39 - Yet another fantastic win against MVL 44:17 - Epic game between Nihal and Pragg from Global Chess League 46:23 - The year in review for GM Leon Luke Mendonca 47:30 - Leon's strong win over Prraneeth with the Black pieces 49:18 - Raunak taking down Korobov in the Spanish League 50:39 - 2022-2023 for IM Vaishali Rameshbabu 51:55 - Vaishali's amazing comeback against former Women's WC 52:57 - An unbelievable turnaround against Pauline Guichard 55:20 - Winning a wild game against Sethuraman 59:02 - Looking back at the year for WGM Savitha Shri Baskar 1:00:00 - Savitha's win against a strong Grandmaster 1:01:30 - WACA's new entrant - IM Vantika Agrawal 1:02:37 - Vantika's powerful win against Prraneeth Vuppala 1:07:40 - The many talents of WACA 1:08:20 - IM Divya Deshmukh winning Tata Steel Chess India Women's Rapid 1:08:56 - The team of trainers at WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy 1:10:00 - What is next for WACA? 1:11:35 - Final thoughts and Thank you!

[@shivasundar]

Vishy - still finding the best computer moves in almost all positions - lovely 🤩🤠! The OG - not for nothing he was Advanced Chess Champion twice in a row (if memory serves me right). Also, *Vishy the Dumbledore at the Indian Hogwarts* ! Lovely smiles - the pride when he sees his mentees' key moves - made my day!!

[@SecAllTheWay]

Dumbledore at the Indian Chess Hogwarts❤

[@ayushkp.official]

1:02:47 Watch with subtitles ON. 😂😅

[@bhushanchopade7334]

😭🤣

[@lakshmitvs6051]

How to unhear it 😂😭

[@ayushkp.official]

​@@lakshmitvs6051cause she likes it😂

[@Itscomplicatedaf24]

😂😂😂

[@sreejithnair705]

Nihal winning multiple titled tuesdays recently, and being in top consistently is an achievement as well

[@roshanrider225]

Nihal became very weak compare to pragg ,gukesh and arjun

[@jatinkaushik689]

​@@roshanrider225only 20 rating weak?

[@gauravmitra8091]

Yes he even beat Hikaru and went on to win Titled Tuesday..these performances by Nihal should be noticed by everyone, I guess Sagar does not even know about it.

[@hritikkumar2518]

Yes,he won the most recent titled tuesday by beating both Firouza and Hikaru , very impressive indeed

[@adarshpundhir2757]

Vishyyyy sir 🐐🐐🐐🐐❤

[@gshankar2021]

Sagar is not doing well ...looks like he has sore throat but still he conducts this session Hats off and respect.

[@chandrashekhardeosthali1915]

Great man Vishy the Legend.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@himankghosh2333]

Voice is there now!

[@rahulalbussrk]

Chopppp the pawn, destructive Sagar bhai scared today :P

[@neerajbenu]

No voice in the video. First comment!!

[@hirak16]

No audio.

[@braingamer6420]

When we have chess in Asian games 2023

[@shivasundar]

@Vishy - I saw the touch move video carefully again. You should not forget that *Carlsen famously touched a piece against Nepo in the WC first of all - which he did not claim, and everybody wondered about that* !! We all support Nihal obviously ☺👌🖖However, this is the opening, _and also_ I did not see Nihal mouth the words "I adjust" or at least look at Nepo to just visually convey this. Cheers, sorry to correct you!

[@neelszz]

He says j'adoube

[@krishnapandit8190]

Only 360p quality 😶

[@sahilrizvi6583]

No sound :(

[@BrajeshKumar-hm9sw]

Does Arjun is not a part of WACA?

[@unnamed_traveller]

Yes, Arjun is part of WACA.

[@kashzoro]

Sagar has mentioned all in description

[@dheerajreddy5109]

sagar why did you skip arjun??

[@dv-ridhan1778]

No sound

[@naresh_biswas239]

Where is Arjun?

[@saradhibethapudi7848]

Hello

[@prashanttendulkar]

Why Arjun left WACA ?

[@dniendkdksmd27839]

Arjun??

[@convey1997]

No voice

[@tango3667]

What's wrong with you guys? Won't you check your audio.😂

[@LokeshKumar-90]

Time to get a new phone mate 😊

[@kirenn1000]

It's a bug with KZbin, just restart KZbin to get back the audio

[@anemidhanalaxmi7338]

first?

[@thelibrary144]

No voice

[@aarizhaq9758]

No voice