"A new era of champions..." FIDE India Zone president hails country's double gold at Chess Olympiad

India performed spectacularly at the ongoing International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess Olympiad in Budapest to claim two gold medals in both men's and women's events on Sunday.

Speaking to ANI, Sanjay said that Indian chess is now bearing the fruits of its hard work over the last four years, which also included a Chess Olympiad bronze back in 2022. He also said that after the era of chess legend Viswanathan Anand, a new era has finally arrived in the country and the future of chess is "golden".

"We planted a tree, and today we are reaping the fruits from it. In the last Olympiad, we got a bronze medal. This time we converted it into gold. It was our tireless hard work of the last 4 years we did for Chess. I congratulate every Indian for this and thank all the players for this and congratulate them a lot. These results tell us that after Viswanathan Anand, now the era of new champions is coming. You will find not one but many champions playing in this country, and the future of Chess is golden," said Sanjay.

In the final round of the tournament, the Indian men's team of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna beat Slovenia to clinch the gold medal.

It was the wins from D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi that gave India a 2-0 lead and confirmed the gold medal. Later in the final round, Praggnandhaa also won his game, and Vidit ended his bout with a draw. India defeated Slovenia 3.5-0.5 to seal the gold medal.

Meanwhile, the Indian women's chess team of Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, and Tania Sachdev also won gold after beating Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5.

Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal won their respective matches in the final round. While, R Vaishali drew her match against Ulviyya Fataliyeva. (ANI)