India’s dominant Chess Olympiad win reminds Viswanathan Anand of Soviet team

Chess great Viswanathan Anand said he was lost for words to explain India’s dominance.

In the men’s section of the Chess Olympiad, likening it to the dominant teams from the Soviet Union in the past. Speaking to India Today, the former world champion said India went into the tournament as one of the contenders and ended up dominating it from start to finish.

India won the Chess Olympiad gold in both the men’s and the open section, completing a historic double in Budapest on Sunday, September 22. The men’s team, starring D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna, was nearly unbeatable, dominating the standings from the word go. India was all but assured of the gold medal in the men’s section with a round to go.

“When I saw how India had played, I tried to come up with historical examples. What are the teams that would have come close? The only teams that could have come close are the Soviet ones. Those are the teams that had this kind of dominance. The Soviet teams were expected to dominate. Our current was expected to win. And they outperformed and dominated the tournament. Our teams will remain very strong contenders and I think that will remain for the next 10 years,” Anand told India Today.

From the mid-20th century until the dissolution of the USSR, Soviet players were virtually unbeatable on the global stage. They won numerous Chess Olympiads, often securing double golds in both the open and women’s sections. Between 1980 and 1986, the Soviet Union had a streak of double golds, a feat that was only interrupted by the Hungarian women’s team led by the Polgar sisters in 1988 and 1990.

India clinched 21 points — four more than the second-placed United States of America. D Dukesh, who won the Candidates earlier this year, was sensational on the top board, producing one of the greatest individual performances in the Chess Olympiad, scoring 9/10. Gukesh beat higher-ranked Fabiano Cauana in a decisive victory in their match against the United States. Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrati went on a winning run while R Praggnananandhaa held his forte in the clutch moments.

India first won a medal at the Chess Olympiad in 2014 — a bronze in the men’s section and followed it up with another bronze in 2022. The women’s team opened its account in 2022, winning a bronze in Chennai.

For the first time in their history, India won the Gaprindashvili Cup — a special trophy awarded for the best combined result in the Open and women’s sections.

The Indian men’s team won 27 out of 44 games, suffering only one loss throughout the tournament. The Indian women’s team, consisting of Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev, also had a remarkable run.

“It had been a bit of a hit-and-miss. We were not a team that was expected to dominate. We were a team that would turn up and try to fight for it – a reasonable position. In 2014, we won a medal. In 2018, we were fifth or sixth and there were one or two results that could have pushed us higher. But this is a team that turns up and everybody expects it to win. It’s apples and oranges. You can’t compare those two performances,” Anand added.