New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed artificial intelligence (AI) and the ambition to make India a sports superpower while hosting the Olympiad gold-winning Indian chess teams at his residence. In this discussion, Modi also tried to understand the mindset of the players in the pressure-filled tournament.
The discussion took place on Wednesday evening in which both the men’s and women’s teams, who won the Olympiad gold medal for the first time, shared their experiences with the Prime Minister and also asked him about his interest in sports. The men’s team included D Gukesh, the youngest challenger of the World Championship, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigesi, Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and captain Srinath Narayanan.
The women’s team comprised R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, D Harika, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal. Their captain Abhijeet Kunte was also present at the discussion. Modi asked the team about their impressive performance in which the men’s team scored 21 out of 22 points and the women’s team scored 19 out of 22 points. He also tried to know what was the reaction of their rivals after this victory.
Harika said, “All our competitors expressed happiness for us.” Tania said, “We won so easily that it seemed that no one could come close to us.” Tania also said that they were determined to defeat America, which denied them the gold medal in the final round of the last Olympiad. Gukesh, who is preparing for the world title match against China’s Ding Liren in November-December, reiterated that it was ‘team work’ due to which they were successful in winning the gold medal.
Gukesh said, “This experience was a great team effort. We were in great form, we were all motivated. There was a match in the last Olympiad in which my victory would have ensured India’s gold medal but unfortunately I lost it.” He said, “This time we were motivated to win.” The Prime Minister was keen to know how AI is shaping the future of chess where players test themselves against computers every day.
On this, Praggnanandhaa said, “Chess has evolved due to AI. Computers are very strong opponents which gives new ideas.” Gujarati said, “And then AI is available to everyone. It has made chess democratic.” When Tania then asked the Prime Minister about his interest in sports, Modi said that it is an important indicator to see the development of any country.
Modi said, “Only the economy is not the only indicator of a country’s development. Development requires invincibility in every field. If you are talking about films, how many Oscars have your films won? If you talk about science, then the number of Nobel Prize winners.” He replied, “Similarly, when our children win maximum gold medals, our country becomes great.” All the players were mesmerized by the Prime Minister and Vantika was surprised that Modi even knew about her birthday coming on Saturday.
Vantika said, “He knew about it. I was very surprised. When I was nine years old, he had felicitated me during a junior competition in Gujarat, which inspired me.” Gukesh said, “The way he remembered Vantika’s birthday shows how much he cares about sports and sportspersons.” Vantika also presented the Prime Minister with a photo of the felicitation ceremony in which he had presented her a shawl.
When the players also asked the Prime Minister about his busy daily schedule and how he deals with the workload, he said, “You must be getting training. You must have been told about food and drink, these things you should eat. Before the match, eat this much, don’t eat this much, you must have been told everything. I believe that if we get used to these things, then we can digest all the problems.” He said, “And as I said, yoga and meditation are really very effective in this.”