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India’s chess prowess was on full display at the 46th Chess Olympiad, where the men’s team secured a silver medal and the women’s team brought home a bronze, alongside multiple individual honours.
IMAGE: R Praggnanandhaa drew with Hungary’s Richard Rapport, while Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Leko in the final round of the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand on Sunday. Photograph: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE
Key Points
- Indian men’s chess team secured a silver medal at the 46th Chess Olympiad after a tie-break against Hungary.
- The Indian women’s chess team clinched a bronze medal following a draw with Georgia.
- Uzbekistan won the gold in the Open section, while China claimed gold in the Women’s section.
- B Savitha Shri was a standout performer for the Indian women, earning an individual gold medal.
The Indian men played out a draw with Hungary and settled for the silver medal on a tie-break, while the women drew with Georgia to bring home the bronze in the 46th Chess Olympiad that concluded in Samarkand on Sunday.
India’s Strong Showing at Chess Olympiad
The Uzbekistan team regained the gold medal in the open section after winning the final round game against Ukraine by a 2.5-1.5 points.
The Uzbeks ended with 20 points out of a possible 22, winning as many as 10 rounds and losing a lone match against Germany.
The Indian men ended up with 18 points and were tied for the second spot with Germany that defeated Holland.
However, thanks to a better tie-break score, the Indian team ended with silver while Germany had to be content with the bronze.
Women’s Team Secures Bronze
IMAGE: B Savitha Shri won the individual gold medal for her performance at the Chess Olympiad. Photograph: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE
In the women’s section, China annexed the gold with another fine performance against Vietnam, winning by a 3-1 margin. The Chinese team also ended with 20 points in all, a couple of points more than second-placed Kazakhstan.
The Indian team was yet against rescued by B Savitha Shri who has clearly been the best performer among the Indian women. Ending up with nine points out of her 10 games, Savitha Shri was clearly the reason why the Indian women could win the bronze.
As it happened in the match, Humpy scored a quick victory over Nana Dzagnidze but Divya Deshmukh lost against Bella Khotenashvili on fourth board.
After Vantika Agrawal was also held to a draw on the third board, much was left to Savitha Shri to survive a very difficult position where her king was under constant scrutiny. Savitha eventually fought move for move to force the draw.
Individual Honours for Indian Chess Stars
In addition to the team bronze, Savitha also won the individual gold medal for her performance. Humpy and Vantika won the bronze while Divya Deshmukh got silver medal for her performance.
Among the Indian men, Praggnanandhaa won the bronze for his performance but following a last round debacle, Gukesh narrowly missed out on gold.
Important results final round:
Open: Uzbekistan (20) beat Ukraine (Nodirbek Abdusattorov Igor Kovalenko; Javokhir Sindarov drew with Vasyl Ivanchuk; Nodirbek Yakubboev drew with Ihor Samunenkov; Mukhiddin Madaminov beat Roman Dehtiarov). India (18) drew with Hungary (17) 2-2 R Praggnanandhaa drew with Richard Rapport; Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Leko; Nihal Sarin drew with Benjamin Gledura; D Gukesh lost to Gleb Dudin). Netherlands (15) lost to Germany (18) 1.5-2.5; Anish Giri drew with Vincent Keymer; Jorden Van Foreest lost to Matthias Bluebaum; Loek Van Wely drew with Svane Frederik; Casper Schoppen drew with Rasmus Svane.
Women: China (20) beat Vietnam 3-1 (Zhu JIner beat Pham le Thao Nguyen; Song Yuxin drew with Vo Thi Kim Phung; Lu Miaoyi beat Luong Phuong; Zhai Mo drew with Nguyen Thi Mai Hung). Poland (17) drew with Kazakhstan (18) 2-2 (Oliwia Kiolbasa drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva; Aleksandra Maltsevskaya beat Alua Nurman; Kulon Klaudia drew with Meruert Kamalidenova; Alicija Sliwicka lost to Elnaz Kaliakhmet); India (18) drew with Georgia (16) 2-2 (Koneru Humpy beat Nana Dzagnidze; Divya Deshmukh lost to Bella Khotenashvili; Vantika Agrawal drew with Lela Javakhishvili; B Savitha Shri drew with Meri Arabidze).
