Indian chess stars recreate Rohit Sharma’s famous walk after Olympiad triumph
The Indian chess team was seen celebrating in Rohit Sharma style after their double gold medal at the Chess Olympiad 2024.
Notably, both Indian men’s and women’s teams created history in Budapest as they clinched gold in their respective categories on Sunday, September 22. Following their historic triumph, the Indian team was seen ecstatic at the podium as they held the national tricolour. Moments later, Tania Sachdev and D Gukesh were seen emerging from either sides recreating Lionel Messi’s iconic walk celebration from the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Earlier in the year, India captain Rohit Sharma was also seen celebrating in a similar manner following India’s T20 World Cup 2024 triumph.
D Gukesh etched his name in history books by winning his second individual gold medal at the Chess Olympiad. Gukesh guided India to their first-ever Olympiad win in the men’s division as he remained unbeaten in the tournament, securing 9 wins and a draw from his 10 matches on the top board. Apart from him, India’s Arjun Erigaisi was named the best performer on Board 3 with 10 wins out of 11 matches. The duo helped India gain 21 out of 22 possible points creating history for the country in the tournament.
After the men’s team’s historic victory, the women’s team, comprising of Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Tania Sachdev and Abhijit Kunte secured the gold medal completing a historic double for India in the Chess Olympiad.
In the final round of the competition, India beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to keep a strong charge for the gold medal. Harika, Divya and Vantika won their matches against their respective opponents while Vaishali secured a draw. Despite their win against Azerbaijan, India were not assured of the top spot. India’s victory in the women’s open section competition depended on the USA stealing points from Kazakhstan.
India were crowned champions after USA were able to hold their opponent to a 2-2 draw on Sunday. If Kazakhstan had won the match vs the USA, the competition would have been forced to tie-breaks.