NDTV World Summit: India Present, Future Of Chess, Says Tania Sachdev

Only two countries before India have won the men's and the women's event together at the Olympiad, chess player Tania Sachdev said on Tuesday, underscoring the significance of the nation's historic feat.

"We had to earn and sweat it out in the last match and the team really delivered on that day," Sachdev said at the NDTV World Summit. "It was a lifetime journey for a lot of us on the team."

She recalled that the India women's team had a fantastic run at the Chennai Olympiad as well in 2022, but it was the last round that took the gold away from them. "These ghosts from the past are always on your mind and it's very important to block out the noise."

People have been talking about this for generations that chess started in India and then, obviously, there has been this big boom in India and the biggest talent has been coming out from here, Sachdev said at the session titled Checkmate: Dominating The World, where teammate and Olympiad gold medallist Vantika Agrawal also took part.

Last month, the country won both the men's and women's gold at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest. The Indian team of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and P Harikrishna clinched the gold in the open section. Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Sachdev won the women's event.

Coach Abhijit Kunte pointed out that the Indian women's team was always very strong, but somehow, they were not winning the medal.

"I took the job of being the coach of the team since '21 and we could start winning the medals. And now I think the team has grown so much that not winning gold itself looks like a failure," he said.

Asked if World Championship challenger Gukesh's win would be a pivotal moment, Sachdev thinks there had been quite a few turning points and it was hard to highlight just one.

"But I think, it's sort of like a river, there are many twists and turns and then, it leads out into this ocean," she said. "India has had many of these pivotal points. Hopefully, the world championship will be the ocean."