India Creates History at Chess Olympiad, Claims Golds in Both Men’s and Women’s Categories

Budapest: The participants from the Indian contingent at the Chess Olympiad held at Budapent managed to create history by bagging gold in both the men’s and the women’s categories. Both the medals came on Sunday, making this day a very important one for Indian chess. 

In the men’s category of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024, India defeated Slovenia after D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanadhaa won their respective matches in the 11th and final round match.

The International Chess Federation announced,” India wins the 45th FIDE #ChessOlympiad!  Congratulations to Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan (Captain)! Gukesh D beats Vladimir Fedoseev, and Arjun Erigaisi prevails against Jan Subelj; India secures at least a tie in their match against Slovenia, and clinches the gold!” 

Soon afterwards, the women's team, comprising Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijit Kunte secured another gold medal. Thus bringing the historic double gold for India in the Chess Olympiad.

In the final round of the women’s competition, India beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to post a very strong competition for the gold medal. Harika, Divya and Vantika won their matches against their respective opponents in the match, while Vaishali secured a draw. 

India was however not assured of the gold despite their win against Azerbaijan. India were crowned champions after USA were able to hold their opponent to a 2-2 draw. But if Kazakhstan had won the match vs the USA, the competition would have been forced to tie-breaks.

And thereafter the International Chess Federation announced, “India wins the 45th FIDE Women's #ChessOlympiad! Congratulations to Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijit Kunte (Captain)! “

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