The year 2025 dawns with fresh hope for athletes in Delhi, a chance to rewrite the narrative after a rollercoaster 2024. While last year offered glimpses of promise, it was largely overshadowed by disappointments, particularly in cricket, where neither the men’s nor the women’s teams managed to secure a national title. Other sports mirrored this underwhelming trend, leaving fans yearning for a turnaround.
Yet, amid the gloom, chess provided a ray of light. Woman Grandmasters Vantika Agrawal (double gold) Tania Sachdev’s brilliant play propelled the Indian women’s team to its maiden Chess Olympiad gold in Budapest, a historic achievement that became the centrepiece of Delhi’s sporting year. Junior players also made their mark, offering a glimpse of a bright future for the game in the city.
Now, with 2025 kicking off in high gear, Delhi is poised for a fresh chapter. The 4th Matrix Cup Open International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament (classical), scheduled for January, will set the stage for a year packed with opportunities. For a city eager to reclaim its sporting pride, the question lingers: will this be the year Delhi rises to the occasion?
Chess revolution
Chess has captured the imagination of children and adults alike in Delhi. The stellar performances of Indian players at the Chess Olympiad and FIDE World Championship in 2024 have inspired a wave of enthusiasm for the game. Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, who became the youngest-ever FIDE World Champion at 18 years in December, has been particularly influential in motivating aspiring players.
“Indians’ superb performance at the Chess Olympiad in September and the FIDE World Championship in November-December has certainly provided a double booster for Delhi chess, as well as the rest of the country. Parents are now coming forward and taking the ‘risk’ of encouraging their kids to take up chess,” says experienced chess coach Puneet Jaiswal, speaking to Patriot.
Jaiswal highlighted the remarkable feat of nine-year-old Aarit Kapil, who stunned Grandmaster Raset Ziatdinov of the United States during the KIIT International Open Tournament in Bhubaneswar. Aarit’s victory made him the youngest Indian—at nine years, two months, and 18 days—to defeat a GM in a classical match, placing him among the youngest globally to achieve this milestone.
Also Read: A look back at 2024, when Delhi made its mark in chess and athletics
“His win is excellent news for chess in Delhi, and he is among the players to look forward to in 2025. Chess tournaments in Delhi-National Capital Region are now played weekly, attracting 400-500 children. Earlier, this was not the case. More and more youngsters are taking to chess now while schools are giving leave to their young students to compete in outstation tournaments where their parents accompany them. One reason for this is that learning chess has become easy through books and software while it is taught free of cost at places in Delhi,” Jaiswal added.
Teenager Sahib Singh is another promising player to watch in 2025. With two International Master norms and one Grandmaster norm, Singh leads a pool of talented players that includes Aradhya Garg, GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, and Arpan Das, all of whom delivered commendable performances in 2024.
Athletes’ promise
Delhi’s track and field athletes also hold great promise for 2025. Among the notable names are Tushar Kanti Manna (400m), Tejaswin Shankar (decathlon), Harshita Sahrawat (hammer throw), Jay Kumar (400m), Chanda (800m), and Neeru Pathak (200m, 400m, 4x400m relay).
Manna, along with the other members of the Indian squad, is training under Jamaican coach Jason Dawson in Trivandrum. “We shifted from Patiala to Trivandrum a few weeks ago. My personal target for 400m in 2025 is clocking 45.5 seconds,” Manna told Patriot from Trivandrum. His current personal best is 45.92 seconds, which came at the Under-23 Indian Open Athletics competition in September.
Meanwhile, Jay Kumar set a meet record in the under-20 category at the National Junior Athletics Championships in December, clocking 46.29 seconds. His performance erased the previous meet record of 46.59 seconds, set by fellow Delhiite Amoj Jacob in 2017.
Delhi’s chief coach, Dinesh Rawat, expressed optimism about the city’s athletes in the new year. “I expect our athletes to perform better in 2025, especially with important global competitions being staged in India,” he told Patriot.
Talking about the promising Tejaswin Shankar, who also excels at high jump, Rawat informed: “He is fully focused on decathlon this season and would go to participate in indoor heptathlon and pentathlon competitions in Europe in coming months to fine-tune his decathlon event.”
Scorching the greens
Delhi’s young golfers are making waves, even if their achievements often go unnoticed. Eleven-year-old Shan Alvi, son of a Delhi Golf Course (DGC) caddie, has emerged as a prodigious talent, with multiple tournament wins, including the North Zone Indian Golf Union Sub-Junior and Junior Feeder Tour under-10 title in November.
“I shot 15-under par there to win the under-10 title,” Shan told Patriot. “I am presently working on hitting.”
Dilshad Alvi, Shan’s father, initiated him into the sport. “Since I thought I had good knowledge of golf, I made him play this sport. I trained him initially, and now he trains under Mr Vikram Sethi,” he shared.
Shubham Jaglan, now 20, continues to shine as a product of Delhi’s golf circuit. Having won multiple junior world titles, he is set to turn professional in the summer of 2025. “He is our biggest bet, globally, as far as golf is concerned,” said Amit Luthra, who discovered Shubham’s talent.
Cricket disappoints
While chess and golf soared, Delhi’s cricket performances in 2024 were underwhelming. Amid controversies over team selections, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) struggled to maintain credibility. With no national titles in the 2023-24 season and a poor showing so far in 2024-25, Delhi’s prospects in cricket look bleak.
Nevertheless, players like pacer Harshit Rana and batsmen Ayush Badoni and Priyash Arya offer glimmers of hope for the future.
Sporting events
In addition to promising athletes, Delhi will host a series of marquee events in 2025. The 4th Matrix Cup Open International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament is scheduled for January 3-7 and 1st Skillcraft International Open (Below 1800) Classical FIDE Rated Chess Tournament (classical) will be played from January 10-12.
The Kho Kho World Cup starts from January 13-19, followed by the India Open Badminton Championship from January 14-19.
The city will also host the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in March and the Para Athletics World Championships from September 26 to October 5—the first time this prestigious event will be held in India. Other major events include the National Marathon in February, the Delhi Half Marathon in October, the World Boxing Cup Final in November, and the men’s Junior Hockey World Cup in December.
The women’s cricket World Cup will also be held in India from August 15 to September 15, with matches spread across various venues.
