 "Indian women's chess finally announces itself with historic Olympiad gold in Budapest")
The 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary concluded on Sunday and ended up producing one of the greatest moments in Indian chess history. In the century that has passed since the tournament first took place alongside the Paris Olympics in 1924, the Indians had never won gold until Sunday.
And what made the occasion even more special was the fact that India won a medal not just in the Open category, but also in the women’s event .
Men’s chess in India has quite the history, starting with the legendary Viswanathan Anand becoming its first-ever Grandmaster in 1988 and later going on to win the World Chess Championship five times.
The men’s team had also won their first-ever Chess Olympiad medal a lot earlier — a bronze in the 2014 edition in Tromso, Norway. Eight years later, they would add a second bronze to their collection on home soil in Chennai, with the women’s team collecting its maiden medal also with a bronze.
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Whether the gold medal won in dominant fashion by the men’s team — the likes of D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi helping India virtually clinch Open gold with a round to spare — is the greatest moment in Indian men’s chess or not is debatable.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBut women’s chess surely has announced itself before the world by being crowned champions in Budapest.
‘More youngsters will be coming in’
Vantika Agrawal, who was part of the gold-winning Indian women’s team in Budapest, agrees with that sentiment and believes more girls will be inspired to take up chess as a career path.
“This is the greatest moment for women’s chess in India. More women will be inspired to play chess thanks to this victory. They won’t be discouraged by the fact that chess is not part of the Olympics. They will be working harder, and a lot more youngsters will be coming in,” Agrawal told Firstpost in a chat on the sidelines of a felicitation ceremony organised for the victorious Indian team by the All India Chess Federation in New Delhi on Thursday.
The women’s team for one had the bumpier road to gold in Budapest. While the ‘Open’ team was outright dominant, winning all of their rounds with the exception of a 2-2 draw against Uzbekistan, the women’s team hit a roadblock following an eight-round defeat against Poland and a subsequent draw against USA.
The women’s team, captained by GM Abhijeet Kunte which had senior players such as Harika Dronavalli and Tania Sachdev in its ranks, managed to hold its nerve when things got real tense during the business end of the tournament. Just when the top spot appeared to be slipping out their grasp, India produced back-to-back victories under pressure, beating China as well as Azerbaijan.
What helped their case was the fact that Kazakhstan, who were engaged in a tense race for the title with the Indian team, were held to a draw in the final round by the United States.
India had narrowly missed out on gold in Chennai two years ago, but appeared to have learned their lesson from that bronze and went a step further in Budapest a couple of years later. And what was impressive about India’s turnaround under pressure last week was the manner in which some of the junior members of the team — Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali besides Vantika — responded under pressure.
Harika, who had been competing in major events since she was a teenager and finally realised her dream in what she believed was her final shot at winning a Chess Olympiad gold, heaped praise on younger players and felt the future of women’s chess in India was in safe hands.
“Nowadays the kids are so smart, they also have a lot of experience. They play a lot of tournaments, much more than before. Earlier, it wasn’t easy to play so many open tournaments and not everyone can get access to play stronger tournaments. So they’re very experienced, I wouldn’t like to take any credit.
“It’s completely their understanding and their greatness that they managed to do that in pressure moments. But as senior players, we would try to keep the team on a positive note. But all the credit goes to the youngsters for their performance. Nothing to do with me or Tania,” Harika responded to a query from Firstpost while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event in New Delhi.
One of the key difference between men’s and women’s chess in India is the number of Grandmasters in each category – of the 85 Grandmasters that have emerged from this nation starting with ‘Vishy’ Anand in 1988, only three are women.
There is hope that the historic gold in Budpaest will boost the numbers as far as female GMs are concerned. Having helped her team make history, Vantika for one shifts her attention to upgrading her status as an International Master.
“I want to be a Grandmaster at the earliest. I want to cross 2500. As for long-term goals, I want to feature in bigger events down the road and if possible, compete in the world championship,” Vantika, signed off.
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