Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh capped off a spectacular Chess Olympiad for the nation and himself with a win over Russian Vladimir Fedoseev on Sunday in Hungary as India bagged a historic gold.
Arjun Erigaisi, who has also had a terrific outing in Budapest picked up a win over Serbian Jan Subelj on the final day of the event.
🇮🇳 India wins the 45th FIDE #ChessOlympiad! 🏆 ♟️
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 22, 2024
Congratulations to Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan (Captain)! 👏 👏
Gukesh D beats Vladimir Fedoseev, and Arjun Erigaisi prevails against Jan Subelj; India… pic.twitter.com/jOGrjwsyJc
The Indian team for the open category included Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan.
India won their first gold medal at the Olympiad when held in person; the last time was when they shared gold during an online Olympiad held during the pandemic.
Their best performances prior to this year have been the bronzes they won in 2022 (at Chennai) and 2014 (Tromso, Norway.)
Heading into the final round, India was on top of the standings in the open section with 19 points while China was second with 17 and Slovenia was third with 16.
In the women’s section, India and Kazakhstan share top spot with 17 points (with India slightly ahead on tiebreakers) while USA and Poland are hot on their heels with 16 points.
