India's youngsters, who made history at the 45th Chess Olympiad at Budapest, clinched their maiden gold medals in both men's and women's teams," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, inviting India's young chess players to his official residence.
The teams gifted him a chess board and the PM also witnessed Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi play a blitz game. He concluded the meeting with chess stars at the end and said that the Prime Minister has made them feel so comfortable that it did not feel like they were speaking with the country's Prime Minister.
The men's team, led by outstanding performances from D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Praggnanandhaa, took home the gold medal with a nail-biting win in the final round against Slovenia.
The women's team fronted by the no-nonsense performances from Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev, bagged gold and took the title home with an outright win against Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5.
Team captain Abhijit Kunte recollected that they had just learned that PM Modi had spoken about their victory in the US.
He wanted that achievement of ours in 100 years to reach every corner of the world. We won the victory just a couple of hours before the PM's speech on September 22, in the USA. When we listened to the speech, the PM proudly shared our win with all of them," he said.
"If you deliver a good performance and you are appreciated by the Prime Minister, what else do you want? The way he spoke showed us a comfort zone. He asked about the tournament and joked around. He tells us how he manages so many things and decides," said Vidit talking to the media about his meeting with PM Modi.
Vantika Aggarwal could not believe it when told that the PM has remembered her birthday and recalled her first meeting with the PM Modi when she was 9 years old.
My birthday was on 20th September, and PM sir remembered it. I couldn't believe he remembered my birthday. The time when I was 9 years old, Modiji had made an arrangement of a mega event in Gujarat. At that time, I had won the Asian Championships. He invited me to that event, felicitated me," she said.
"The way he remembered Vantika's birthday shows how much he really cares for the players and how much it means to him and it's really nice for us to know," Gukesh added.
Tania Sachdeva said this meeting has left a lot of josh among the teams, and they have learned some valuable lessons from the Prime Minister.
I learned so much from him and his experiences, especially how to handle pressure. This meeting with PM left us with a lot of josh. He motivated and inspired us a lot. It's truly a special day for all of us," said Tania.
Vaishali R said, "When I presented myself, the first thing he asked was, Where is brother? And how are your parents? that makes me feel connected. Very nice of him to ask about my parents… He gives more importance to yoga and meditation, along with physical fitness."
"He has great knowledge about many things, such as chess and the history of chess. He makes us feel at ease, and I think that is really important," said chess prodigy and Vaishali's brother Praggnanandhaa.
All the players got so engrossed in the conversation that "we forgot we were speaking with the PM," said Harika Dronavalli.
He is very down to earth, so we were speaking like we were discussing something quite normal. I'll remember this experience for the rest of my life," she said.
"It wasn't like he was the Prime Minister of India at all. He was so humble, and that he made sure we were comfortable was very important for him. It was really surprisingly chill in atmosphere. I mean, one thing that struck me about him is that he is so humble. Despite the fact he is the PM of the country, he spoke about how everyone should be open to suggestions and criticism. I think that is such an incredible quality," said Divya Deshmukh.
The Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna-led team of men secured first position throughout the tournament by winning 10 games and drawing just one. Going into the final round, they were 2 points clear of China.
In the final round, India needed only a draw to win the gold medals or for China not to win their match. India continued to push for a win and defeated Slovenia 3.5-0.5.
The women's team really started with a bang, dominating the event after 7 rounds. They had won every one of their matches. In round 8, they slipped, losing to Poland and then drawing against Team USA, but made a great finish. As the competition entered the final round, India was tied for first place with Kazakhstan; there was a battle all the way down to the wire for the medals.
The Harika-Vaishali- Divya-Vantika-Tania team played beautifully under the leadership of Abhijit Kunte, including a fine win over Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 in the final match, while Kazakhstan was only able to draw with the USA 2-2, and India became the sole winner of the event.
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