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How The Hindu Data Team tracked India’s path towards success in Chess Gukesh D of India at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. | Photo Credit: Tibor Illyes (This article forms a part of the Data Point newsletter curated by The Hindu’s Data team. To get the newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here.) Hello, data enthusiasts! India’s elite chess players — most of whom are barely out of their teens or have yet to become adults —are rightfully basking in the glory of the country winning twin golds in the open and the women’s section of the Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Hungary. Chess’ premier team event showcased a new peaking moment for a generation of chess players, who have in the last half-a-decade, reached the elite of world chess quickly and decisively. The Hindu data team has been tracking the progression of this generation by contextualising their achievements in this period. In our recent Data Point, we found that Indian Grandmaster (GM) D Gukesh, who won gold in the Budapest Olympiad again after doing so in the preceding Chennai Olympiad in 2022, registered a performance that was the best ever since performance ELO ratings (ELOp) – a comparative rating that is calculated by tallying points based on performances against opponents – were tracked in the Olympiads (from 1972 onwards). He did so by turning in a ELOp of 3056. Compatriot GM Arjun Erigaisi’s performance after winning gold on the third board and registering an ELOp of 2968 was the third best ever. Gukesh and Arjun, apart from GM R Praggnanandhaa and other Indian youngsters were the subjects of numerous Data Points. We had contextualised the other spectacular achievement by Gukesh this year - winning the Candidates tournament to become the challenger to World Champion Ding Liren in a match that will be held next month. We had found that Gukesh’s path to success and a high ELO rating matched that of other elites such as reigning World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and French GM Alireza Firouzja. Click here to view the full image. Other year-end chess related data points recently had also looked at the current chess generation’s progress - 2023 and 2022, for example. We had published two earlier Datapoints - one harping on how Indian GMs were getting minted at much earlier ages than before and another that showed how Indian juniors ruled the roost in the chess world in 2022 and they were poised to enter the world elite. When Gukesh surpassed his mentor Viswanathan Anand as India’s highest rated Chess player, we marked that event with a data story here. Here’s Anand interviewed by The Hindu’s Data Team for a podcast based on India’s performance in the 2022 Chess Olympiad and the progress shown by young GMs Gukesh, Arjun, Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin (among others), many of whom were mentored by Anand. Speaking of Anand, the very first Datapoint produced by The Hindu featured the impact of India’s first GM and five-time world champion on the chess boom in India. At that time (published sometime in early 2017), there were only 45 recognised GMs in the country. Today in seven years, India has added 40(!) more GMs. In the period that we have covered India’s success story in chess through data, the game has picked up massive popularity and receives much more patronage from enthusiasts interested in the game in the country than before. Thanks to resourceful websites such as fide.org, chess-results.com, 2700chess.com, olimpbase.org, among others, it is now possible to track the progress of the mind game’s elite and therefore Indian chess players’ path towards world domination. Click here to view the full image Chart of the Week Click here to view the full image The chart shows the cases of arson against persons belonging to Scheduled Castes in which trials were completed and cases in which trails were pending. The sum of these forms the total number of cases that were up for trial at the start of that year. It was featured as a part of a story titled “Torching Dalit homes is a recurring crime in Bihar: Data” It showed that even among the increasingly fewer cases that end up in court, over 99% are pending at the end of the year; only 1% of trials are completed. The number of cases of crimes against Dalits that were pending trial increased from about 33,000 in 2017 to more than 58,000 in 2022. Here are some important News in Numbers from last week Percentage decline in India’s power consumption in August 4.7% Power consumption declined to 144.21 billion units (BU) last month against 151.32 BU in the year-ago month. The highest supply in a day (peak power demand met) also contracted to 216.68 GW in August 2024 against 236.29 GW in the year-ago month. Percent of independents in fray in J&K 40 A total of 365 candidates have filed their nominations as Independent candidates to contest the three-phase polls. This is the second-highest number of Independents to contest the polls in Jammu and Kashmir. In the 2008 assembly elections, 468 candidates had contested as Independents. Number of complaints to NRI cell regarding domestic violence, dowry 481 The government’s NRI cell, which handles cases related to NRI marriages from women both in India and abroad, received complaints from women in 2022, with key issues ranging from domestic violence, confiscation of passports, desertion to dowry demands and child custody disputes, according to the latest annual report from the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7 41,870 The toll includes 45 deaths in the previous 24 hours on October 6, on according to the ministry, which said 97,166 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. |
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