The Indian men’s and the women’s teams in the Chess Olympiad 2024 created history by winning the gold medal in the team events in Budapest. They stamped their authority in the tournament and clinched the elusive gold medal in the biennial Chess Olympiad.
The Indian women’s team that comprised of Vantika Agrawal, Divya Deshmukh, D. Harika and R. Vaishali, secured a victory over Azerbaijan in the last round of this competition and the scores read 3.5-0.5.
In the men’s team, R. Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh D, Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi were the star performers and helped the team win the gold medal. P. Harikrishna was the other member of the men’s team and he played as a reserve player in the team.
United States of America (USA) finished 2nd in the men’s event and India had defeated them in the penultimate round. Praggnanandhaa lost to Wesley So while Arjun Erigaisi defeated Leinier Perez, Vidit Gujrathi had a stalemate against Levon Aronian. D. Gukesh, who will be playing the World Championships later in this year, outclassed World Number 3 Fabiano Caruana.
In the final round of the women’s event, D. Harika, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal registered victories while Vaishali, who is also the sister of Praggnanandhaa, notched up a draw.
India finished with 1 point more than Kazakhstan, who were 2nd on the points table. Tania Sachdev, who is also a sports commentator, was on the reserve board for the Indian women’s team.
Gukesh, Vantika, Divya Deshmukh and Arjun bagged the individual gold medals in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. All of them performed exceedingly well and helped India win both the gold medals.
India also laid their hands on the Gaprindashvili Trophy at Budapest, which is given to the team with the best overall performances in the men’s and the women’s sections.
