‘This Time We Just Wanted the Team to Win’: India Chess Wizards Reflect on History-Making Olympic Victory

The Indian men’s and women’s chess teams created history by winning their first gold medals at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday after their superb performance throughout the event.

D Gukesh’s genius shone through as the young prodigy overcame adversity in a magnificent display for the Indian team.

“I feel great especially with the quality of my games and how we played as a team and despite many close misses in the past we managed to win in a dominant manner this time. I am very happy right now,” Gukesh said after the historic win.

The Indian men’s team came very close to winning the yellow medal with just one day to go but put an end to a memorable campaign with a superb performance against Serbia on Sunday.

“Yesterday we were in the team meeting, we were already in a celebratory mood. I was very excited but I was hoping there would be no match. We forced ourselves to focus and come here, do the job and then celebrate,” Gukesh explained.

“I thought even if we lost the match, we would still win in the tie-break. Of course, we wanted to win the match. We were expecting a win. We were all pretty relaxed. But yes, I am happy that Arjun and I finished the job,” the 18-year-old added.

Gukesh played a key role in India’s golden campaign by winning 8 of his 11 matches in the Hungarian Capital.

“This tournament is a great one for me, especially after what happened last time, we were very close to winning the team goal. I thought whatever I do this time, I will do whatever it takes to win the team goal,” Gukesh reflected.

“So I didn’t think too much about individual performance. I just wanted the team to win this time,” he added.

“I think it’s just about keeping discipline and focusing on the tournament. And once you get into the rhythm, everything else happens automatically. When I got the first four wins, I thought I had set myself up for a great tournament,”

“In this tournament, I wasn’t thinking about the match. The Olympics are one of the most important tournaments of the year and I was just thinking about the event, but it’s nice to see that I’m getting fit and feeling good.

“And yes. There is still some time, so we will work a little more and hopefully I will be ready for the match.”

“At the Olympics, I just wanted that, it’s definitely something very important. It’s not as important as the match, but it’s something very important to me personally. So I just wanted to do my best and win this tournament.”

Indian women took a more scenic route to the top of the podium, sealing the deal on the final day of the campaign.

Tania Sachdev expressed her satisfaction with the success and said that she was proud of the team that won the championship.

“I’m so overwhelmed right now. I’m so proud of my team, of everything we did in the open (category and) women’s. When I look back now, I think it was a perfect fit for us,” Sachdev said.

Recalling the bronze medal won by India at the Olympics, R Vaishali said how happy she was to improve the colour of food in Hungary.

“I still remember last year, we lost in the last round. To be honest, I couldn’t sleep last night, thinking about these things but I am so happy that we played as a team,” said Grandmaster Vaishali.

D Harika stated that he realized his childhood dream with this victory and talked about the difficulties he overcame to reach the top.

Harika said, “When I participated in the Olympics 20 years ago when I was 13 years old, I had a dream of winning an Olympic medal and finally today it can come true!”

“This tournament has been a roller coaster ride for me and I am happy that the girls pulled themselves together in the crucial matches and in the end we came together as a team and won the last match, it means a lot,” she added.

“We played with the strongest teams here and I think we deserved it,” Harika continued.

Divya Deshmukh, who gave an incredible performance at the Olympics, shared her happiness with some relief over the result.

“I feel very happy and relieved. I was very stressed for the last two days thinking about what would happen but knowing that we won this match with a high score makes me really happy,” Divya Deskmukh