“A landslide”: The world of chess is in shock and amazement following India’s display of strength in the Olympiad
India’s dominance at the Olympiad was set in context by Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri and Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport.
After their performance at the Chess Olympiad, where the nation claimed three team gold medals — for the open section, women’s category, and the overall section — in addition to four individual golds won by Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal, the Indian contingent stunned the world.
It was an unprecedented level of dominance at an Olympiad, especially considering the 180+ countries that are competing.
India gave such a terrible performance that even their opponents had to applaud.
Anish Giri, the Grandmaster, puts it into perspective. “What transpired at the Olympiad was exactly what we anticipated. It was clear from the patterns we had been witnessing in recent years that India would eventually take the lead. It was the talk of the town. However, discussing it in an abstract way and assuming that some players will dominate is one thing. Determining who will dominate and how is a another matter. And to witness it take place! Thus, everyone was taken aback, but not entirely by surprise, Giri told The Indian Express.
“I had a rough start to the competition, but by the conclusion of it, I had six victories. Their performance at the Olympiad inspired me. I started to play better. It was incredible to see not just that India won, but also how powerful some of the players these days are, especially the young ones. The number of points Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh scored!” added Giri, who, in the upcoming Global Chess League, will be teammates at the PBG Alaskan Knights with Nihal Sarin, the fourth star of the Indian ‘prodigy quartet’.
“India dominated the open segment right from the start (of the Olympiad). They became victorious and unbeaten. We lost to them 3-1, which was a respectable outcome for both sides. We had no opportunities on any board, Rapport remarked after holding Gukesh to a draw in 11 rounds at the Olympiad, one of the two occasions the Indian teenager was held to a draw in the competition. “I thought India’s victory in the women’s division was far more spectacular. They did not have the same level of popularity as India in the open category. In the women’s division, there was fierce competition. But it was a landslide in the open area.
Rapport said that the depth of India was its greatest asset.
“You have incredibly special players like Arjun or Gukesh. Normally, you should have one such exception! But for India they’ve come in pairs in some sense. At the Olympiad both Arjun and Gukesh have scored an insane amount of points. Because they’ve been competing with each other since childhood, perhaps, they were able to figure out a way to turn this into something positive. Often what I see is that when two players are competing and one is doing well, the other feels underwhelmed. And if one player starts to do badly, the other does well. They keep switching. But with Arjun and Gukesh, they’ve risen together. They have just accepted the fact that they have to focus on their game. I don’t think there’s jealousy between them. I would expect there to be jealousy. But there’s none. They’re just so successful on their own that I don’t think they compete with each other. They compete with themselves,” said Giri.
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