Chess, Olympiad 2024: 88 games, 50 wins, 6 gold medals – India usher in golden era in Budapest

The Indian open and women’s teams at the 2024 Chess Olympiad played a total of 88 games across 11 rounds in Budapest. They won a mind-boggling 50 of those, drew 32, and lost only six. Seven out of the ten Indian players who played in the tournament remained unbeaten.

Four out of the seven unbeaten players – Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal – returned with individual gold medals. The individual medals usually do not really matter in a team event like the Olympiad. But the fact that all four of them are aged 21 and under makes it hard to overlook.

“That [rise of the youngsters] is very important,” said Pravin Thipsay, the first Indian to earn a Grandmaster norm, in a conversation with Scroll. “When we were playing, we were told you will play your best chess at 45-50 years of age. But after 35, my game started declining.”

“If you look at it, [Gioachino] Greco was just 10 when he was playing his best chess in the 1600s. [Paul] Morphy was 13. Gukesh and [Nodirbek] Abdusattarov are the pioneers in this case for this generation. They have shown you don’t have to wait until you are 30-35 to beat the best in the world,” he added.

India’s first appearance at the Olympiad came more than six decades ago in 1956. It took the country 68 years to stand on the top of the podium. The twin gold medals have only made the victory sweeter. In fact, India is only the second country after China in 2018 to win both gold medals in the same edition since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Over the course of the last few decades, India have bagged two bronze medals in the open section – 2014 and 2022 and a bronze in 2022 in the women’s event.

There were a lot of expectations from the Indian team in 2006 when they started as the second seeds in the open event, but the team finished a disappointing 30th.

India, once again, started as the second seeds in the open event behind the United States almost two decades later in 2024. This time around though, it was one of the strongest teams in Olympiad history with an average rating of above 2700.

Unlike in 2006, everything fell in place for India in 2024.

Gukesh and Erigaisi notched up victories at will. The latter is now ranked third in the world. The former, meanwhile, had a tournament performance rating of 3056 – the second best in chess history, only behind Fabiano Caruana’s 3098 performance back in 2014 at the Sinquefield Cup.

Vidit Gujrathi remained unbeaten on the fourth board as well, while Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu provided much needed stability on the second board despite not having the best of tournaments. Pentala Harikrishna, who played only three games registered two victories and a draw.

India finished with 21 points out of a possible 22 for the gold medal with the United States finished a distant second with 17 points. The dominance was unparalleled.

In the women’s event, the young Deshmukh and Agrawal carried the Indian hopes on their shoulders. They pretty much secured at least one win on either the third or fourth boards in every match to ensure India never lost their way, despite a late tournament wobble.

The two combined to score 17 points in 20 games. It more than made up for the three losses Harika Dronavalli faced on the top board and the times when R Vaishali felt out of touch.

India lost a total of four games on the top board in the women’s event – an area usually carried on the back by Koneru Humpy for almost 20 years.

“Humpy’s absence was felt,” said Thipsay. “She has been managing the top board for 20 years.”

Dronavalli is more than used to stepping in at the top board in Humpy’s absence. She made her Olympiad debut as a 13-year-old more than 20 years back. This was Dronavalli’s worst ever show in a team event, but like any perfect team, others stepped up.

“The likes of Vaishali, Vantika, and Divya are all under 25. They need to slowly replace her on the top board. That would be the real growth for Indian women’s chess,” Thipsay added.

Thipsay also attributes India’s success in Budapest to the 2022 Chess Olympiad when the All India Chess Federation stepped in to host the tournament at the last moment in Chennai. He believes that the opportunity the youngsters got with multiple Indian teams in contention at the event laid the foundation for the twin gold medals two years later.

“I remember Magnus [Carlsen] said the India B is stronger than the India A team before the Olympiad,” Thipsay recalled. “The B team ended up winning bronze in the open event, while the stronger A team finished fourth then.”

The Indian B team in the open event, which won the bronze medal in 2022, included the likes of Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, and Nihal Sarin. Gukesh even went on to win an individual gold ahead of Magnus Carlsen then.

“The fact that Gukesh could win gold ahead of Carlsen brought a change in mindset,” asserted Thipsay, who holds the distinction of being only the third Indian Grandmaster. “Arjun, Divya and others also started believing they can also dominate,” he added.

Deshmukh and Agrawal, who propelled India to gold in Budapest, were also part of the women’s B team in Chennai.

For a sport believed to have been originated in India, the country’s domination in Budapest sans stalwarts Viswanathan Anand and Koneru Humpy with a young team makes a stellar statement.

The chess world had predicted an Indian chess boom ages ago. The time has finally arrived. The 2024 Chess Olympiad will go down as one of the defining moments in Indian chess history.

As Thipsay put it, “This is just the beginning of the golden time.”