“Took Chess Olympiad as an individual event, wanted to do well…”: Gukesh on preparations for World C’ships

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 24 (ANI): Indian chess grandmaster D. Gukesh was given a warm welcome at the Chennai airport on Tuesday following the country’s historic double gold medal in men’s and women’s competition at the recently concluded Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

Gukesh was one of the stars of India’s double gold medal triumph at the Olympiad, in which the country secured gold medal at the competition for the first time ever and joined the elite company of countries to have pulled off a double of gold medals in the same edition of the competition.

The youngster, who also won the FIDE Candidates tournament this year and is the challengers to the world title, delivered a memorable performance, scoring 9/10 points in the competition. This led to his live rating reaching 2,794 and putting him at world number five ranking.

Later, speaking to the media, Gukesh said that he took the Olympiad as an individual event and wanted to perform really well leading upto the World Championships, which will take place in Singapore from November onwards.

“In the Olympiad, I took it as an individual event. I just wanted to perform well in this specific tournament. I am very happy with my performance and the team’s performance. The result is proof that we were doing many things right and we were in the right spirit. I am very glad about whatever happened in Budapest. Now will be heading to the World Championship, and for now I am very happy. There are still a couple of months left and I will work harder and be fully ready,” said Gukesh.

In the final round of the tournament, India’s men’s team of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna beat Slovenia to clinch the gold medal.

It was the wins from D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi that gave India a 2-0 lead and confirmed the gold medal. Later in the final round, Praggnandhaa also won his game, and Vidit ended his bout with a draw. India defeated Slovenia 3.5-0.5 to seal the gold medal.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s chess team of Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, and Tania Sachdev also won gold after beating Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5.

Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal won their respective matches in the final round. While R Vaishali drew her match against Ulviyya Fataliyeva.