Remember June 25, 1983, London?
Remember August 7, 2021, Tokyo?
Remember December 24, 2000, Tehran?
Remember May 15, 2022, Bangkok?
India’s first cricket World Cup triumph, the first athletics gold at the Olympics through Neeraj Chopra, the first World chess championship title through Viswanathan Anand, and the first Thomas Cup victory will be etched in memory forever. Add to those magical dates September 22, 2024 — the day India dominated the 64 squares on the global stage the way it never did before.
India’s men and women won the gold at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday (September 22, 2024). Around 190 countries took part in the most prestigious team championship in chess. Think of an event like the football World Cup or the Davis Cup in tennis. The Chess Olympiad is that big.
But India’s twin triumph should hardly come as a surprise, though. It wasn’t like Kapil Dev’s men winning the World Cup.
At Budapest, the men were seeded second and the women first. Still, you have to win the gold, taking the best teams on, over 11 rounds.
The competition was going to be tougher for the men, but they crushed the field. They won 10 of their matches and drew the other.
They finished with 21 points while the runner-up United States could manage only 17. And the American team contained some of the strongest players in the history of the game.
India’s victory against the USA in the penultimate round was vital. The match against Slovenia in the final round was almost a formality.
India fielded D. Gukesh on the top board, where he would be meeting the best players of every team. And he was brilliant. Just as he was at the last Olympiad, two years ago.
India’s decision to field Arjun Erigaisi on the third board, too, paid off. He just blew away the opposition, especially in the first half of the tournament, as he won six games in a row.
R. Praggnanandhaa played on the second board, and he may not have had as great a tournament as his team would have wanted him to, but that didn’t matter. Vidit Gujrathi’s consistency contributed to the cause.
Extraordinary feat
India’s gold in the women’s is also an extraordinary feat. For, the women went to Budapest without its best player, Koneru Humpy. The World No. 6 does not play as many tournaments as she used to. She will be relieved that her younger compatriots rose to the occasion and made up for her absence.
The two youngest among them, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal, were terrific. They ensured that India scored well on the two lower boards, especially after the team suffered some setbacks on the first and second boards. D. Harika and R. Vaishali had some forgettable games, but they also scored some crucial points for India.
Tania Sachdev and P. Harikrishna were the reserve players for India. They too contributed.
This is already a great year for Indian chess. It could get even greater. Gukesh is playing the World chess championship match against China’s Ding Liren, starting on November 23 in Singapore.
It looks like Indian sport will get another date to remember.
Published – September 23, 2024 04:01 am IST
