Budapest. India created history on Sunday when its men’s and women’s teams won gold medals for the first time in the 45th Chess Olympiad by defeating their opponents in the final round. Grandmasters D Gukesh, Arjun Erigesi and R Praggnanandhaa won their respective matches in the 11th round against Slovenia. World Championship Challenger Gukesh and Arjun Erigesi once again performed well in the crucial matches to help India win its first title in the Open category.
In the match against Slovenia, Gukesh performed best in the technical phase against Vladimir Fedoseev with black pieces. Although he got a tough win, the 18-year-old Grandmaster adopted a brilliant strategy. Erigesi defeated Jan Subelj playing with black pieces on the third board. If this was not enough, then Praggnanandhaa came into form and won a brilliant victory over Anton Demchenko. With this, India won 3-0 over Slovenia with one match remaining.
The Indian men’s team scored 21 out of 22 points. The players only managed a 2-2 draw against Uzbekistan. The Indian women defeated Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to secure the gold medal for the country. D Harika showed technical superiority on the first board and Divya Deshmukh once again outclassed her opponent to secure her individual gold medal on the third board.
After R Vaishali played a draw, Vantika Agarwal’s brilliant victory ensured the Indian team the gold medal. The Indian men’s team had earlier won bronze medals in the 2014 and 2022 editions of the tournament. The Indian women’s team won the bronze medal in the 2022 edition in Chennai.