India wins historic double team gold at FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024
India’s two team and four individual gold medals are hailed as the beginning of the country’s reign as the ‘best chess nation in the world’.
India’s chess masters have created history by winning team gold medals in both men’s and women’s competitions at the 45th International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
In addition to winning the team championships, India also walked away with four individual gold medals as the tournament wrapped up in the Hungarian capital on Sunday.
Wins for Gukesh Dommaraju (more commonly known as Gukesh D), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi sealed gold in the men’s event, known as the Open event, while Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev won their respective games to secure gold in the women’s competition.
Gukesh, Erigaisi, Deshmukh and Agrawal bagged individual gold medals on their respective boards.
The feat was termed an “unbelievable” achievement by India’s chess great Viswanathan Anand.
“It feels like a magical time for India,” the former five-time world champion said on the International FIDE YouTube channel in the lead-up to the final day.
Anand, who also won the Chess World Cup twice, said the result was a few years in the making but for India to walk away with team and individual honours exceeded his expectations.
The men’s team won 27 of their 44 games, losing just once and drawing six. Their final round of matches was against Slovenia, whom they defeated 3.5-0.5, while the women’s team beat Azerbaijan with the same score.
Gukesh, who has also qualified for the final of the World Chess Championship in November, said he was delighted that his team got over the line in a dominant fashion after having some close misses in the past.
India was declared a joint winner in the men’s competition along with Russia in the 2020 edition, which was held online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gukesh said: “We are very happy with how we played together as a team.
Eighteen-year-old Deshmukh was a standout performer in the women’s competition and remained undefeated, winning seven of her 11 games and drawing four.
She said in the winners’ news conference “It started off well but got a bit tough in the middle but I am proud of how we handled it [the situation] and fought back.
I feel quite overwhelmed with emotions.”
Hungarian American chess great Susan Polgar hailed Deshmukh’s run at the tournament.
“With an absolutely amazing performance in this Olympiad,” Polgar wrote in a post on X.
The four-time world champion predicted more wins for the Indians, saying: “This team will stay on top for years.”
