India Secures Historic Double Gold at 45th Chess Olympiad 2024

The Indian chess team has achieved a landmark victory at the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024, clinching its first-ever gold medal in the team event. Held in Budapest, Hungary, the Olympiad saw the Indian team facing Slovenia in a decisive round. Arjun Erigaisi opened with a victorious match against Jan Subelj, followed by D Gukesh who triumphed over Vladimir Fedoseev. R Praggnanandhaa defeated Anton Demchenko, while Vidit Gujrathi secured a draw with Matej Sebenik. The match concluded with India scoring 3.5-0.5 over Slovenia, ensuring their historic win.

The Indian Women’s team mirrored the success by outplaying Azerbaijan with a score of 3.5-0.5, contingent on the Kazakhstan–USA match. With Kazakhstan drawing against the USA, the Indian women clinched the gold with a total score of 19 out of 22. This marks India’s first victory in both the men’s and women’s categories at an Olympiad.

Among notable individual performances, D Gukesh secured a gold medal on Board No. 1 for the second consecutive Olympiad, while Arjun Erigaisi improved his past performance from silver to gold. The Indian team set a new benchmark by scoring 21 out of a possible 22 points, surpassing the previous record jointly held by the USA and Ukraine, which stood at 20 points set during the 42nd Olympiad in 2016.

GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Divya Deshmukh, and IM Vantika Agrawal contributed to the women’s team triumph by defeating their respective opponents. R Vaishali added a draw against IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva.

The success comes six years after China’s last dual gold in 2018, marking India as the latest nation to dominate both categories in a single Olympiad. The Chess Federation of India and prominent chess figures have expressed immense pride and anticipation for a detailed analysis of performances in forthcoming reports.