How India Conquered The Chess Olympiad

'The Indian Open team was extremely well prepared and motivated to win the gold medal.'
'With two players in the world top 10 club, and four players with over 2,700 ELO points (GMs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, all below 20) and Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna, it was a solid team.'

A combination of factors turned out to be the secret sauce for India's chess teams -- Open and Women -- winning medals and the Gaprindashvili Cup at the 45th Chess Olympiad, say experienced chess Grandmasters.

The several decades long dream of winning the Olympiad Gold Medal finally came true at Budapest in Hungary that hosted the 45th Chess Olympiad.

"Winning the gold medal in the Olympiad has always been my dream as a team player. I am very happy to see it come true," says chess Grandmaster K Sasikiran.

"The Indian Open team was extremely well prepared and motivated to win the gold medal. With two players in the world top 10 club, and four players with over 2,700 ELO points (GMs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, all below 20 years of age) and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and P Harikrishna, it was a solid team," adds Sasikiran.

The strength of the Indian teams -- Open and Women -- was seen in their seeding. The Open team was seeded second after the US and the Women's team was seeded first.

True to their seeding, the Indian Open team won all its rounds including against the top seeded USA and third seeded China, barring a draw against Uzbekistan.

"The current Indian Open team has two sharp shooters (Gukesh and Arjun) and the others doing the balancing act -- Praggnanandhaa, Gujrathi and Harikrishna," says Dibyendu Barua, India's second Grandmaster who has played 7 Olympiads. Barua is head of the Indian delegation for the Olympiad.

That apart, the board order strategy of putting the highest rated Indian player Arjun on third board proved to be right as teams would play a lower rated player in that position. So a stronger player at that position would surely fetch a point.

Interestingly, the undefeated Arjun won nine out of total 11 games, drawing two.

There are three coaches for the two Indian teams -- main and two assistant coaches -- adds Barua.

The Open team was led by non-playing Captain and Coach GM Srinath Narayanan. The Women's team was led by non-playing Captain and Coach GM Abhijit Kunte.

"The assistant coaches -- GMs Vaibhai Suri and Sankalp Gupta for the Open team and GMs Swayams Mishra and Arjun Kalyan for the Women's team -- would be in the hotel to do the necessary research about opponents and provide the necessary inputs. They are the silent and invisible heroes for the Indian team's performance," says Barua.

The cost of the four assistant coaches is borne by the All India Chess Federation (AICF), adds Barua.

In the past assistant coaches were a non-existent concept for AICF.

"I think the main facility we got then was that the team generally worked for almost a month (training) before the Olympiad with a top coach at times. It helped the players to develop fresh opening ideas and perspective," Sasikiran recalls.

"Gukesh, Arjun, Vidit and Hari were in great shape and took the team to the only logical conclusion (Gold medal). Only Pragg (Praggnanandhaa) was struggling a bit, but he was fighting quite hard and did not lose till the 10th round," remarks Sasikiran.

From the days of being seeded far down the line to figure at the top, Indian chess has really come a long way.

Earlier Indian players had won board prizes for their individual performance at the Olympiad.

"Individual board medals, even, Gold has been achieved many times. Rafiq Khan, Silver on second Board in 1980. Barua, Gold on second board in 1990. GM S Vijayalakshmi twice Silver on top board (Women's section). But yes. Team Gold was not thought of. We used be seeded between 20 and 35 and often won 2.5-1.5," remembers GM Pravin Thipsay.

Over the years, the Indian Open team became stronger and their seeding improved.

"After (Viswanathan) Anand started playing in 2004, I thought India had a realistic chance of getting to the podium. The 2014 Olympiad at Tromso was very special because we (Open team) were seeded 19th and finished third to win the bronze medal. We were very lucky. But that achievement went unnoticed by the state/central governments," says Sasikiran.

It was the first time an Indian team won a medal in the Olympiad.

"Only after India won Bronze in 2014, without Anand being a part of the team, I felt it was possible to be a real superpower. But China won Gold in both Men and Women in 2018, so it looked tough till 2022," says Thipsay.

The next major success for the Indian teams -- Open and Women -- was the bronze at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai.

In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic FIDE held the Chess Olympiad online. Russia and India were declared joint winners as two Indian players lost their Internet connection midway.

As to the Indian women's team performance, Thipsay says it was shaky for the top seed. GM Koneru Humpy's absence was felt due to the four losses on the top board. But Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal were simply superb and more particularly Divya, says Thipsay.

Most of the top players in the world remain at the top by avoiding open tournaments and play in closed tournaments, points out Thipsay.

"If GMs Levon Aronian or Ian Nepomniachtchi or the current World Champion Liren Ding play in open tournaments like Arjun, they will drop to the 2,650 rating band," says Thipsay.

While India is now marching towards having 100 GMs, the country only had International Masters till the mid 1980s. India's first GM was Viswanathan Anand in 1988, followed by Barua, Thipsay and others.

The chess revolution in India happened mainly because of Anand, says Barua.

On seeing Anand's success middle class parents put their children into chess coaching with a hope that their wards too would become like him.

At that point of time, chess was also a relatively economical game and parents thought the game would help their children focus on their studies.

With a large number of players entering the field, Indian chess began to grow which in turn resulted in the growth in number of IMs and GMs and now winning the coveted Olympiad Gold by the Open and Women's teams.

The circle will be complete if Gukesh wins the World championship defeating reigning champion China's Liren Ding.

Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com