Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed artificial intelligence (AI) and the ambition to make India a sports superpower while hosting the Olympiad gold-winning Indian chess teams at his residence.
In this discussion, Modi also tried to understand the mentality of the players in the pressure-filled tournament.
The discussion took place on Wednesday evening in which both the men's and women's teams, which won Olympiad gold medals for the first time, shared their experiences with the Prime Minister and also asked him about his interest in sports.
The men's team included D Gukesh, the youngest challenger at the World Championships, R Praggnananda, Arjun Erigesi, Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and captain Srinath Narayanan.
The women's team included R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, D Harika, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal. Their captain Abhijeet Kunte was also present in the discussion.
Modi asked the teams about their stellar performance in which the men's team scored 21 points out of 22 and the women's team scored 19 points out of 22.
He also tried to know what was the reaction of his rivals after this victory.
“All our competitors cheered for us,” Harika said.
“We won so easily that it felt like no one could get close to us,” Tania said.
Tania also said that they were determined to defeat America who had denied them the gold medal in the final round of the last Olympiad.
Gukesh, who is preparing for the world title bout against China's Ding Liren in November-December, reiterated that it was 'team work' due to which he was successful in winning the gold medal.
“This experience was a great team effort,” Gukesh said. We were in great form, we were all motivated. There was a match in the last Olympiad in which my victory would have ensured India's gold medal but unfortunately I lost in it.
“This time we were motivated to win,” he said.
The Prime Minister was curious to know how AI is shaping the future of chess in which players test themselves against computers every day.
On this, Pragyanananda said, “Chess has developed through AI. Computers are very strong competitors which provide new ideas.
“And then AI is available to everyone,” Gujarati said. It has democratized chess.”
When Tania then asked the Prime Minister about his interest in sports, Modi said that it is an important indicator to see the development of any country.
Modi said, “Economy alone is not the only indicator of development of a country. Development requires invincibility in every field. If you are talking about films, how many Oscars have your films won? If you talk about science, the number of Nobel Prize winners.
He replied, “Similarly, when our children win maximum gold medals, our country becomes great.”
All the players were mesmerized by the Prime Minister and Vantika was surprised that Modi even knew about her birthday falling on Saturday.
Vantika said, “He knew about it. I was very surprised. When I was nine years old, he honored me during a junior competition in Gujarat, which inspired me.
“The way he remembered Vantika's birthday shows how much he cares about the game and the players,” Gukesh said.
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