Budapest
For the first time in the history of Chess Olympiad, India has done something that could never be done before in 97 years. On the strength of D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, India has created history by winning the gold medal in the open section of the Chess Olympiad. Apart from this, India has also won the gold in the women’s section. On the other hand, Gukesh has also won gold in the individual event. In this way, India has now won 3 golds.
This is also the first time that India has won gold in both these sections in the Chess Olympiad. In the 45th Chess Olympiad being played in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, Gukesh defeated Vladimir Fedoseev, while Erigassy defeated Jan Subel.
Gukesh won the Chess Olympiad for the second consecutive time
18-year-old D Gukesh has created history by winning gold for the second consecutive time. He has achieved this feat in an individual event. Earlier, he had won gold in the 2022 Chess Olympiad. After winning two consecutive golds, Gukesh has become the second Indian after Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand. He has also become the 16th Chess Master of the World Cup.
This is how the Indian men and women teams were
The Indian men needed only a draw in the last round to finish first in this section. But while India won two matches, second-placed China lost points against the USA.
The Indian men’s team included D Gukesh, Arjun Elegasi, Vidit Gujrati, Pentala Harikrishna, R Praggnanandhaa and Srinath Narayanan. While in the women’s section, India defeated Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 in the last match. The women’s team included Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijeet Kunte.
Before this India had won bronze twice
Let us tell you that this is the first time in the history of Chess Olympiad that India has won gold in both the sections (women-open). India has never achieved such success before. India had won the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad two years ago. Earlier in 2014 also it had got bronze.
The Indian men performed brilliantly in this tournament. They won 8 matches in a row and then played a draw with defending champion Uzbekistan. After this, on September 21, they defeated the top seeded American team and almost confirmed the gold.
