Isle of Man, Dubai, Gibraltar, Jakarta, Delhi, Moscow, Riga, Tallinn, Biel, Havana, Uppsala, Budapest, Reykjavik, Chennai, Wijk aan Zee: these apparently random locations have something in common. They all host large open chess tournaments. These opens are routinely assaulted by large packs of hungry, young Indians. One Grandmaster of my acquaintance refers to this phenomenon as the “15x15 desi contingents”: that is, contingents of 15 players, all aged around 15.
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In tennis, ‘U.S. Open’ and ‘French Open’ are misnomers. But chess opens are really open. Anybody can play, subject to first-come, first-served, and graded entry fees; strong titled players are often paid appearance fees while untitled players pay a fee for the privilege. Some of those Indian youngsters already earn appearance fees, while others are headed in that direction.
