India's growing stature in mind sports reflects both grassroots talent and institutional support. Examine the role of the state and private ecosystem in sustaining global sporting excellence.

India's rise in mind sports shows in its double gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, Budapest [1] and in Divya Deshmukh becoming India's 88th Grandmaster after winning the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup [2]. The state builds the base and the private ecosystem sharpens it. Staying at the top depends on both working together.

Role of the State

• Grassroots scouting: Khelo India (2016-17) set up 1,045 Khelo India Centres. KIRTI finds children aged 9–18 through 174 Talent Assessment Centres [1].
• Elite support: TOPS pays for customised training through the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF). Its Development Group supports juniors [1].
• Exposure: India hosted the Chess Olympiad in Chennai (2022) [1], which gave young players top-level competition at home.
• Federations and awards: Assistance to National Sports Federations and the National Sports Awards [1] fund competition and reward results.

Role of the Private Ecosystem

• Corporate funding: corporates are encouraged to put CSR funds into the NSDF [3].
• Recognition: the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar honours corporates (private and public) for promoting sport [1].
• Coaching and academies: Khelo India has accredited 306 academies [1]. For chess, private coaching and family investment carry much of the training load.
• Visible role models: the all-Indian final between Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy [2] raises interest and brings in private sponsors.

Gaps in Sustaining Excellence

• Olympic bias: TOPS is built around Olympic and Paralympic goals [1], so chess, which is not an Olympic sport, gets little from it.
• Where CSR goes: NTPC and REC's ₹215 crore went to archery, hockey, athletics and boxing [4], not mind sports.
• Gender depth: Divya was only the 4th Indian woman GM [2], so women's teams have few strong reserves.

Way Forward

• Give non-Olympic mind sports their own window within TOPS or the NSDF.
• Offer CSR incentives for chess academies in smaller cities.
• Run Khelo India talent tracks for girls.

Grassroots scouting by the state and private coaching and funding have together made India a chess power. To stay one, support for mind sports and for women players must be deliberate rather than a spillover from Olympic schemes. That fits KIRTI's goal of a top-10 sporting nation by 2036 [1] and supports SDG 5 (gender equality).