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On Sunday, September 22, the Indian men’s and women’s teams scripted history by winning both the gold medals in the open section of the 45th Chess Olympiad, their first-ever title wins respectively at the SYMA Sports and Conference Center in Budapest, Hungary. Apart from team glory, the likes of Dommaraju Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal also won gold medals individually, for their consistent performances right throughout the 45th Chess Olympiad.
The watershed moment in the history of Indian chess at the 45th Chess Olympiad came on the back of a grueling two-week campaign, which saw them dominate proceedings on the board from start to finish, especially in the men’s competition. The team of Dommaraju Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna played 44 matches in total across 11 rounds of the tournament, winning 27, drawing 16, and losing only one.
Dommaraju Gukesh stayed unbeaten in 10 matches for India at 45th Chess Olympiad
After winning the round 11 against Slovenia by 3.5-0.5 scoreline, the Indian men’s team collected 21 match points, finishing four points ahead of silver medallists the USA, and the bronze medallists Uzbekistan, who were separated by board points. Dommaraju Gukesh played 10 matches for India in th e 45th Chess Olympiad, winning eight, getting the better of top players like Fabiano Caruana and Richard Rapport, while drawing the other two, to finish with a whopping 3056-rating performance, while Arjun Erigaisi earned 10 points in 11 matches.
Divya Deshmukh earned 9.5 points in 11 matches for India at 45th Chess Olympiad
In the women’s competition, India were without their star player Koneru Humpy, who had taken a decision to sit out of the 45th Chess Olympiad, but still, they managed to secure their first gold medal in history, not counting the tie for first with Russia at the 2020 Online Olympiad. The Indian women’s team of Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Praggnanandhaa, and Tania Sachdev, ended the tournament with 19 match points, one ahead of silver medallists Kazakhstan, and two more the USA, who got the bronze medal due to more board points than Spain, Armenia, and Georgia.
In the round 11 of the tournament, India defeated Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5, but then, they had to wait for other nations to complete their round of matches before their gold medal win was confirmed. Divya Deshmukh was the best performer in the Indian women’s team, earning 9.5 points in 11 matches, including a crucial in the final match, to bring them a step closer to the gold medal, which was eventually sealed after Kazakhstan drew against the USA.
After the title triumph at the 45th Chess Olympiad in both men’s and women’s competitions, Viswanathan Anand, the Indian chess legend, remarked that “it feels like a magical time for India.” Meanwhile, Sameer Pathak, the CEO of the Global Chess League called it the “1983 moment for Indian chess,” drawing comparison between the 45th Chess Olympiad gold medals and the first-ever Cricket World Cup win 41 years ago.
