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Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi said on Wednesday that India's double gold at the Chess Olympiad will change people's perceptions towards the sport.
In the recently-concluded Chess Olympiad, India's men's and women's teams made history, securing gold medals for the first time in their respective categories and joining the elite company of countries to have pulled off a double of gold medals in the same edition of the competition. Speaking to ANI, Vidit said that the gold at the Chess Olympiad is special for him since India's both men's and women's teams have won it. He also hoped that India will keep dominating in chess. "...This gold is special for Indian chess, it has received so much love, we won in both men's and women's categories. It has never happened before so it is historic. People will look back to this moment...people's perception towards chess will change...we know now that India is the best (in chess)...hopefully in the future, India will keep dominating and keep being on the number one spot," Vidit told ANI. Indian chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa said that winning two medals at the Chess Olympiad is very historic. " We have done something very historic, we won 2 gold medals...cricket is also very tough field...I don't think we should compare between sports, every sport is very difficult...," Praggnanandhaa said. Indian chess grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi said there wasn't much pressure during the Chess Olympiad. He added that they were taking one game at a time. "My next target is Global Chess League, I will try to give my best. It's one of the strongest tournament in the world... In two years, we have improved a lot. There wasn't much pressure. Before the tournament, we just said, let's go for the gold... We were taking one game at a time," Arjun said. USA secured the second spot in men's competition and a bronze in women's competition. Uzbekistan won the bronze in men's competition, while Kazakhstan got silver in women's competition. In the final round of the tournament, India's 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)
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