It was a historic event for India as our teams triumphed at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday! In the Open as well as the women’s section, India clinched gold medals. This is the first time in 100 years that an Indian team has won the gold medal, and they did it together!
The Indian squad in the open section scored 21 points out of 22, stayed undefeated throughout the tournament, and had almost guaranteed themselves a gold medal with a round to spare. On the top board, GM D Gukesh also won the individual gold medal. He scored 9 points in 10 games, with a performance rating of over 3000! GM Arjun Erigaisi also secured an individual bronze medal on board 3 as he scored 10 points in 11 rounds. GMs Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna were the team’s strong pillars on board 4
Praggnanandhaa faced a loss against Wesley So in round 10. Apart from this, the players remained undefeated throughout the tournament!!
The Indian women’s team scored 19 points out of 22. They faced their only loss of the tournament against Poland in round 8. The team came into the final round needing a better score than Kazakhstan to win the gold medal. And they managed to beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5, thus winning the tournament. IM Divya Deshmukh had a fabulous run on board 3 as she scored 9.5 points in 11 rounds. She clinched the individual gold medal on her board. Divya is now rated 2500 in the live ratings! IM Vantika Agarwal also clinched the individual gold medal on board 4, as she scored 7.5 points in 9 rounds. The Indian squad proved what it’s like to play a team event, carrying each other, and the team whenever needed! Atleast one of them would always bring in the much needed point, leading the team towards it’s first ever GOLD MEDAL!
Team India also won the Gaprindashvili Cup, which is awarded to the best performing nation at every Olympiad!
A big congratulations to the players- D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali R, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal and Tania Sachdev, the captains- Srinath Narayanan and Abhijit Kunte, and the assistant coaches- Sankalp Gupta and Vaibhav Suri (Open) and Swayams Mishra and Arjun Kalyan (Women)!!
Photo Credits: FIDE/Michal Walusza, Maria Emelianova, Stev Bonhage
