It feels like a magical time for India.
GM Vishy Anand, five-time World Chess Champion
India is the new superpower in chess.
GM Hikaru Nakamura, five-time U.S. Chess Champion
Chess Olympiad is held every two years and is a great opportunity for lower rated players to match their skills against top players. This year’s Chess Olympiad was held in Budapest, Hungary and 188 teams participated in the Open section while 169 teams were in the Women section. Image above (credit Wiki) shows the SYMA Sports and Conference Centre where the event was held. There were players as young as 9 years old participating in the tournament like Bodhana Sivanandan from the United Kingdom, who was the best woman player in the European Blitz Championship in 2023.
This year Team India had one of the strongest team in both Open and Women sections. India Open team captained by GM Srinath Narayanan had GM Gukesh Dommaraju, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Vidit Gujrathi, and GM Harikrishana Pentala. Average rating of the team was 2755, just three points below the top seed of USA.
Indian women team was led by GM Abhijit Kunte, and consisted of GM Harika Dronavalli, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, IM Divya Deshmukh, IM Vantika Agrawal, and IM Tania Sachdev. With an average rating of 2467, the India Women Team was the top seed in the tournament.
India won the gold in both sections, a superlative achievement. The Open Team scored 21 out of 22 points. This is the best performance by any team in the history of Chess Olympiad. The Women Team suffered one setback against Poland but came back stronger than ever to clinch the title. In addition, the Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy, that is given for best combined performance in the Open and Women’s tournaments was also won by India. The trophy is named after former Women’s World Chess Champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who was also the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster.
For your country, you just have to give it all.
IM Divya Deshmukh
In the Women section, top seed GM Koneru Humpy’s absence meant that Harika had to shoulder the responsibility on board one. Having played most number of Olympiads in the team, her experince helped a great deal. On board two, Vaishali played with black in many clutch matches and played a vital role in blunting the opposition attck.
Humpy’s absence also meant that Tania had to be called in at the last minute. Tania, who is also a commentator and brodcaster was commentating during the Olympics and had no time for preparation. She delivered a solid 3.5 in five matches when the team needed it the most.
IM Divya Deshmukh scored 9.5 points in 11 games, winning the individual gold medal for board three. Divya also crossed the 2500 rating, a milestone in her career. Divya is now World No. 1 in the Girls category. On board four, IM Vantika Agrawal scored 7.5 in 9 games, clinching the individual gold for board four. During the match against Team USA, Vantika had to win to draw the match and keep Team India’s hopes alive. She came through, beating GM Irina Crush to save the day.
After drawing with USA Team 2-2 in the 8th round, the team came back strongly to beat China 2.5-1.5 and Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5. Amazing performance to clinch the gold!
While writing this, I have a tab open for thesaurus and I am trying to find supelatives to describe the performace of the Indian team.
These kids are like machines. Nothing works against them.
IM Miodrag Perunovic, Captain, Team Serbia, on the India Open Team
In the Mahabharata, the two brothers Bhim and Arjun were both great warriors. Such was their combined strength that they were often referred to as one entity – Bhimarjun. In the India Open Team, Gukesh on the top board and Arjun on board three were two players who ran through the opposite teams like a tornedo. India Open team lost just one game.
Lots of teams have strong players but it is highly unusual for two strong players in a team to give such phenomenal performances at the same time. On board one, Gukesh scored 9 points in 10 games with rating performance of 3056! On board three, Arjun was unstoppable, scoring 10 in 11 games, with a rating performance of 2968! Both scored individual gold medals. Arjun is now World No. 3 with 2797.2 rating while Gukesh is World No. 5 with 2794.1 rating. I am speechless! 🙏
The match between Gukesh and GM Wei Yi will be remembered for a long time. It was heading towards a certain draw but Gukesh kept pushing and finally managed to convert it into a win. The way Gukesh found 76.♘hg4 with one minute on the clock is a testament to his focus and mastery of the game. With this win, India defeated China. Unbelievable!
As if this was not enough, Vidit Gujrathi gave a remarkable performance on board four, scoring 7.5 in 10 games. Vidit’s win against GM Benjamin Glendora was phenomenal and helped India score a decisive 3-1 victory over Hungary. And on board two, no one could get past Pragg’s defense, excepting one game against Wesley So. (Pragg’s game against GM Peter Leko was so complex that it would make your head spin just looking at the board.) Even though he got to play only three games, Hari scored solid 2.5 points. This is what made the India Open team so formidable. There were no obvious weaknesses. The players and captains of the opposite team were often left wondering, “What do we have to do to stop this team?”
Captain Srinath’s strategy of playing Gukesh and Pragg on board one and two and Arjun and Vidit on board three and four worked like a charm.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the India Open team was the temperament of the players. As the commentators noted many a times, the Indian players always kept their emotions in check and were able to focus till the end, which made a huge difference in the crucial moments of the game. Gukesh, Arjun and Vidit have mentioned in various interviews that Yoga and meditation helped them in achieving balance.
It also helped that the team players knew each other very well. Some of them grew up together and later competed in tournaments together. Vidit and Srinath have played together, so have Gukesh, Pragg, Hari, and Arjun. So a sense of camaraderie already existed in the India Open team when they came together to play for India.
Chess in India started gaining recognition when Vishy Anand became the first Grandmaster (GM) in the country. It was a watershed moment in Indian chess. As he started winning tournaments, Indians started getting interested in the sport. When Vishy became the World Chess Champion and defended the title four times, it was great inspiration for all the young and aspiring chess players, who had a great model to emulate.
The Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) helped young and upcoming players like Nihal Sarin, Pragg, Gukesh, Arjun, Vantika and Vaishali who received fellowship and were personally mentored by Vishy. No one, including Vishy himself, expected such phenomenal results so soon. Vishy’s invaluable contributions over the decades have culminated in Indian chess triumping today.
I look forward for a very nice and bright future for Indian chess.
GM Abhijit Kunte, Captain, India Women Team
Time came for India, finally.
GM Harika Dronavalli
Before the days of streaming, chess fans used to watch the board online and experts used to comment about the game on social media. Fast connections and streaming have made telecasting a game of chess much easier. YouTube has emerged as one of the major hubs for chess fans to watch chess tournaments. Google is also the title sponsor for the upcoming World Chess Championship match in Singapore between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh. Shoutout also to Tata Steel and Tech Mahindra who have been sponsoring various international chess tournaments and have helped popularize the game of chess.
For the Chess Olympiad, the official YouTube channel of FIDE provided great commentary by GM Peter Svidler, GM Cristian Chirila and WGM Anastasiya Karlovich. I am a big fan of Peter’s commentary. Having spent many years playing in the elite chess circuit, he has a wealth of experience, anecdotes, and chess history to share that makes the commentary interesting when nothing is happening on the board. Peter is also coaching Pragg and is a huge cricket fan. Word is that Pragg is trying to get him to become a fan of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).😀
Chess in India is more popular than ever. This is the golden era of chess in India. ChessBase India is the most popular YouTube chess channel in India. Founded by IM Sagar Shah and WIM Amruta Mokal, they provided in depth coverage of the Chess Olympiad, interviews with the players and analysis. They had a seperate media booth at the venue where the Indian players could often visit and relax after a grueling game.
As I write this, the Indian cricket team has won the first test match against Bangladesh by 280 runs, with a day to spare. The Bangladesh team was in top form after beating Pakistan 2-0. Ashwin Bhai was in phenomenal form scoring a century and delivering a five wicket haul in front of his home crowd. Winning at the Chepauk is always extra special. Amazing performance, Team India!
One thing I love more than anything else in the world is cheering for India. 😎
Quote by GM Hikaru is from his podcast @gmhikaru. Quote by IM Miodrag Perunovic was mentioned during the FIDE commentary by GM Cristian Chirila. Rest of the quotes are from the FIDE interviews of the players.
