New Delhi: Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Monday congratulated members of India’s Open and women’s chess teams for clinching historic gold medals at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday. It was a cherry on the cake moment for Indian sports community with not just one but two gold medals coming from Europe.
Tendulkar, who is India’s leading run-scorer in Tests and ODIs, took to his official X handle to wish the newly-crowned Indian chess teams.
“Two Golds , One Nation! Congratulations to both our men’s and women’s teams for securing the first spot at the #ChessOlympiad2024,” he wrote on his X handle.
Two Golds 🥇🥇, One Nation! 🇮🇳
Congratulations to both our men’s and women’s teams for securing the first spot at the #ChessOlympiad2024. pic.twitter.com/peSoN5RN4O
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 23, 2024
India had already confirmed the gold medal in the Open category after the completion of the Round 10. With only slim mathematical calculations, though arduous, could spoil India’s chances, the likes of D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa won their respective games in the final round against Slovenia while Vidit Gujrathi finished with a draw. As a result, India beat Slovenia 3.5-0.5 to finish the tournament with 21 points.
The Indian women’s team, who was tied on top place with Kazakhstan ahead of the final round, had a task to cut out by defeating Azerbaijan with a heavy margin. And senior player Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal outrightly defeated Azerbaijan 3-5.-0.5 in the 11th round. However, the team waited for the USA-Kazakhstan match result to confirm its gold medal, which became official once the two teams ended in a draw.
India bag four individual gold medals at Chess Olympiad
Gukesh and Arjun were the top performers for India in the Open category. Gukesh finished with 9/10 score and 3056 performance rating. Gukesh won individual gold medal for Board 1 and Arjun won individual gold medal for Board 3. In the women’s category, 18-year-old Divya Deshmukh saw a phenomenal run with 9.5/11 score. She won individual gold medal on Board 3 and Vantika Agarwal, who finished with 7.5/9 score, won individual gold medal on Board 4.
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