India produced a historic performance in the 45th Chess Olympiad and won gold medals in the Open and Women's categories. The country also bagged 4 golds in the individual category, with 2 players each finishing first in both the men's and women's categories.
5 players each represented India in both the categories. After 11 rounds, the open team scored 21 out of 22 points. The women's team won the gold with 19 points.
In the story, let's know about the 5-5 players from both the teams…
Tania Sachdev, Vaishali Remshababu, Harika Dronavalli, Vantika Aggarwal and Divya Deshmukh won gold in the women's team. The team won 9 out of 11 rounds and played only one draw. The team's only defeat came against Poland. However, India finished first with 19 points. The team also defeated defending champions China in the 10th round.
1. Tania Sachdev Sports commentator Tania Sachdev became a Grandmaster in 2008. However, at that time India was not doing anything special in women's chess. Due to which he now got the first international gold of his career in the team event. He won an individual bronze at the 2012 Olympics. Tania played 5 matches in Budapest, winning 2 and drawing 3 matches. He has not lost a single match.
2. Harika Dronavalli Harika Dronavalli achieved the title of Grandmaster in 2011. After winning silver in the individual event at the 2010 Asian Games, he also won bronze at the 2015 World Chess Championship. In 2019, he was honored with the Padma Shri Award. In 2022, he was also part of the team that won silver in the Asian Games. Harika has now won 3 out of nine Chess Olympiad matches and only 3 draws. However, he had to face defeat in three as well.
3. Vaishali Rameshbabu Vaishali Rameshbabu, who became a Grandmaster in 2024, won a silver medal in the 2022 Asian Games with the women's team. He has now played 10 Chess Olympiad matches and won 4. He also lost in 2 matches, but by playing 4 matches, he did not let the team's score deteriorate.
4. Vantika Aggarwal Vantika Aggarwal, playing on board-4, also won the women's individual gold medal. They played 9 matches in 11 rounds and lost only one. They won 5, while they drew 3 matches. He won the Grandmaster title in 2023, before being part of the team that won silver at the Asian Games in 2022.
5. Divya Deshmukh India's strongest player in the women's team was 18-year-old Divya Deshmukh. She is also the number-1 female chess player in the country. He played all 11 matches at the Olympiad, winning 8 and drawing only 3. He also won Board-3 individual gold with a score of 9.5 points.
Divya has also won an individual bronze at the 2022 Chennai Olympics. He also won team event gold at the 2020 Online Olympiad. He also won gold in the individual event at the 2023 Asian Championships. He got the title of International Grandmaster last year.
2 players from the open team also won individual gold India's open team consists of Pantala Harikrishna, R Pragyanand, Vidit Gujrathi, D Gukesh and Arjun Irigasi. Out of these, Gukesh and Arjun also won individual gold. The team went unbeaten in 11 rounds, winning 10, while the only draw came against Uzbekistan. In 11 rounds of 44 matches, the team has lost only one match against America.
1. Pantala Harikrishna Pantala Harikrishna, the most senior player in the team, played only 3 matches, but remained unbeaten in them. He won 2 matches and drew one match. After becoming a Grandmaster in 2001, he won 3 medals in the Asian Games. In 2006 he won gold with mixed team, in 2022 he won silver medal with men's team and in 2010 also he won bronze with men's team.
2. Ramesh Babu Pragyananda R Pragyananda became a Grandmaster at the age of 12. He was then the youngest grandmaster in India and the second youngest grandmaster in the world. He played 10 matches in the Chess Olympiad and won three. India's only defeat in the open event was against America. However, he played 6 drawn matches and did not allow the team's score to deteriorate.
Pragyananda has won an individual gold in the 2022 Chennai Olympics. After that he also won bronze with the men's team. He was also part of the men's team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games. After which he was also given Arjuna Award at the age of 17.
3. Vidit Gujarati Vidit Gujra was India's third best player in the open event. He played 10 matches, won 5 and drew only 5. After becoming a Grandmaster in 2013, he won his first major medal at the international level in the form of the men's team silver at the 2022 Asian Games. Now he also won his first gold in the Chess Olympiad by placing first in the team event.
4. Gukesh Dommaraju Gukesh has been proving to be India's top player in Chess Olympiad for the last 2 years. This time also he played 10 matches and won 8. The opposition could only draw them in 2 matches. He defeated world number 3 American Fabiano Caruana in the 10th round.
Gukesh became a Grandmaster in 2019 at the age of 12. He then surpassed Pragyananda to become India's youngest Grandmaster. Now at the age of 18, he also won an individual gold on Board-1 in the Chess Olympiad. He has also won an individual gold in the Chennai Olympiad.
5. Arjuna Irrigaceae 21-year-old Arjun Irigasi proved to be India's best player in the 2024 Chess Olympiad. He won 9 out of 11 matches and also won individual gold in board three. He also drew two matches. After becoming a Grandmaster in 2018, he also won an individual gold at the 2022 Chennai Olympics.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
