India has created history by winning gold in the open section at the Chess Olympiad 2024. India has won gold for the first time in the Olympiad. Grandmaster D Gukesh made a mark. Apart from Gukesh, the Indian men’s team included R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan. Gukesh and Arjun won their respective matches against Slovenia in the 11th round. Second-placed China lost two board points against the US, after which India got a historic gold.
The Indian team had a great start to the competition. India won their first eight matches before drawing with last edition’s champions Uzbekistan. India won bronze in the Chess Olympiad held on home soil in 2022. India also won bronze in 2014. Gukesh ended the 45th Chess Olympiad on a high for the country and himself by winning over Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev in Budapest on Sunday. Arjun defeated Serbia’s Jan Subelj on the final day of the event.
Even if the Indian team lost the remaining two games, it would have won the gold because only a draw was needed in the 11th round to win the title. Gukesh had almost confirmed the gold for the Indian team by defeating Fabiano Caruana of America. At the same time, the Indian women’s team also won the gold medal. The Indian women’s team included Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijeet Kunte. Harika, Divya and Vantika won the matches against their respective opponents while Vaishali played a draw.
Despite the win against Azerbaijan, the Indian women’s team was not sure of getting the top spot. India’s victory in the women’s open section competition depended on the US getting points from Kazakhstan. The US held its opponent to a 1-1 draw and India became the champion. If Kazakhstan had won the match against the US, the match would have gone to a tie-break.