New Delhi, Oct 22
Just months after India failed to secure a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the men's and women's chess teams representing India at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest achieved an historic feat by securing the gold medal in both categories. According to the women's team coach Abhijit Kunte, their success compensated for the near misses in the Olympics.
"I told the team that we are not going to make the same mistakes of 2022, we're not going to succumb the pressure and make history by winning the double gold. This gold medal was very important for the country, we did not win a single gold at the Olympics and even though there was not much hype about us heading into the tournament, we compensated for the missed gold at the Olympics and I think it made many Indians very happy," Kunte told IANS.
A young Indian team comprising D Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and P. Harikrishna claimed India's maiden title in the Olympiad, with a dominant performance, finishing undefeated in 11 rounds in the Open category.
In the Women's section, the Indian team of D. Harika, R. Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Tania Sachdev and Vantika Agrawal came back strongly from a late defeat to Poland in the eighth round to clinch the title with a victory in the final round over Azerbaijan.
Vantika, present at the NDTV World Summit 2024 alongside her coach, also spoke on her personal experience of being a double medallist.
"It was such a proud moment to win the two golds, the men's and women's team winning the gold medal after 100 years. We were so happy that when we won the match vs Azerbaijan that we started the celebration instantly. We had the special victory dance with Tania and Gukesh doing Rohit Sharma's and Messi's celebration. When we returned we met the Prime Minister and he spoke to us and celebrated our achievement," Vantika told IANS.
"This was just a milestone for me. I'll always keep working hard and aim to become a grandmaster as soon as I can, trying to improve my standards and ranking," she added.