Bengaluru: Ten years ago, tucked 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a 19th seeded Indian team took a crack at history. At the Chess Olympiad hosted in the Norwegian city of Tromso, India won its first medal since the country made its debut in the tournament in 1956. The team, missing India’s top two players — Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna — was led by K Sasikiran. China emerged as a surprise first-time gold medallist in the Open section with India in third place, after they lost the tie-breaker to Hungary.
A decade later, India heads the standings as sole leader at the halfway mark in the Budapest Olympiad. They’ve won all their matches so far, and five rounds remain between them and a possible epoch-making, record-melting finish on the podium. This time, it’s not surprising. There were signposts all along. Since last year, its brightest, top players aged 18-21, have had jaw-dropping individual performances – making a World Cup final, breaking into the world top five, three of them making the Candidates and one qualifying for this year’s World Championship.
Put them together in a team and they’re an unstoppable tour de force, crushing all in their path. In Gen Z slang, they ate and left no crumbs.
India, seeded second in the Open section, has its strongest-ever team at the Olympiad – with the top three boards averaging an age of 19 and two of them inside the top five, flirting with the Elo 2800-mark. They’ve been obliterating the opposition with machine-like perfection.
“Captains of other teams have expressed a lot of admiration and respect for Indian players,” Srinath Narayanan, captain of the Open team, told HT. “It’s not just the score, but also the way we’ve played that has been of a very high level. It’s possible that some teams might be intimidated by us. Some others might savour the challenge of taking on a team that’s playing so well.”
Arjun Erigaisi, world No.4 and placed on Board 3 in striking position, is the only player in the tournament with a flawless 6/6 score. Gukesh, who sat out the first round, has been motoring on with calm and dominance – four wins, one draw. He’s had world No.1 Magnus Carlsen popping by his board to catch a glimpse of the agony he’s unleashed on his opponents and reigning world champion Ding Liren declare him the favourite for their World Championship match in two months.
Round 7 on Wednesday will have India take on China with a potential Ding vs Gukesh face-off. Since he turned world champion, Ding has been shaky with forgettable results and a rankings slide, dropping out of the top 20. The top teams – reigning champions Uzbekistan and top seeds USA, have been beaten in Budapest and giant-slayers Vietnam are on a gutsy run and placed second in the standings, after India. They beat Uzbekistan and held China to a draw. “China is a very challenging match for us. In the rounds ahead, we’ll play some of the strongest teams,” says Narayanan.
The women aren’t to be left behind. The top seeds have beaten every team they’ve faced with an especially stellar turn by Divya Deshmukh. What Arjun is to the Open team, Divya has been to the Indian women’s side so far. The 18-year-old International Master won five of the six games she’s played (1 draw), took down a Grandmaster in the previous round and is closing in on Elo 2500. What’s been remarkable is also how she’s fashioned some of these wins – flipping situations to go from deep trouble to comfortably winning and against craftier, more seasoned opponents. The Indian Women and Open teams won bronze medals at the last Olympiad in 2022. For the women, their historic first Olympiad medal came with a stab of missed opportunity. They were in sole lead heading into the final round before a loss to USA saw them go from gold contender to bronze medallist.
They next face second seeds Georgia. Other strong teams await.
Between Wednesday and Sunday, a lot could happen – upsets, churn in standings, surprise contenders. What this Olympiad has put beyond doubt, though, is India’s rise as a world-dominating chess nation. It’s a sign of what the future holds.
