Chennai: The legendary Viswanathan Anand and women’s top player Koneru Humpy termed India’s maiden gold medal win in the Chess Olympiad as a ‘magical moment’. They said the achievement will spur the further growth of chess in India. Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand was very happy at the achievement.
India and Russia were Sunday declared joint winners of the ‘2020 Online Chess Olympiad’. This happened after the final was marred by server malfunction. Russia were initially declared winners after two Indians – Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh – lost in the final after suffering a disconnection with the server.
For Anand, who incidentally is India’s s first Grandmaster, it was his first Olympiad medal and he described it as a ‘magical moment’.
“The tournament went like a dream for me. A special gold for me,a special moment for youngsters. Winning the gold is simply a magical moment,” Anad told reporters Monday during an online media interaction. All the other 11 members of the Indian team were also present. “I hope this will be the start of many things for India,” Anand said of the India’s first gold medal in the Chess Olympiad.
The Indian men had previously won a bronze in the 2014 edition, which was their best finish before this gold. “The Olympiad win is very special… A very special medal I will add to my collection,” Anand stated.
Praising the younger players, he said they played a huge role in the victory, adding it proved the depth of Indian chess.
Anand was asked about the lack of government recognition for Indian chess players in the last few years. “I hope this result will have a positive impact and they (government) will look at chess they did years ago,” Anand pointed out.
“Several years ago, they had recognised that this is one of the sports where we do incredibly well. I hope we will once again start coming in for Arjuna and Dronacharya awards,” he added.
Humpy, the World Champion in rapid chess, described the triumph as a golden moment for Indian chess. She said great teamwork was key for the win.
“Really a special and golden moment for Indian chess. Talented youngsters like Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa, Vantika.. did well. Great teamwork did it for us. We had an advantage of having a mixed team,” Humpy said. She added that having Anand in the team was a great motivation for everyone.
On playing online, she said, “I never had an idea of playing online chess. I am comfortable playing over the board. The pandemic has forced us to play online. It is a different experience. Slowly, getting used to it,” informed Humpy.
Team captain Vidit Gujrathi said the victory was possible due to the great work by all players. “All the players did a great job which brought us the gold medal. It was a great experience to work with Anand,” he said.
