'Bharat is the new nerve centre of chess world,' declared the All India Chess Federation chief Nitin Narang as the winners of the 45th Chess Olympiad were felicitated by the AICF in a special ceremony held in New Delhi on Wednesday. (More Sports News)
The Indian open and women's teams both won their maiden gold medals at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. In doing so, India became only the third country after Soviet Union and China to complete this double in the history of Chess Olympiad.
"The open section, we dominated. The women's section, we owned it. Every player stepped out in a way that let grow down that India is now a force that is reshaping the chess landscape," Narang said. "After decades of watching Soviet Eastern European dominance in the chess, the chess board has a new nerve center, Bharat."
The Indian chess body also announced cash rewards worth Rs 3.2 crore for the members of the open and women's team as well as the support staff. As per the announcement, each player from the winning teams will receive Rs 25 lakh, while the captains of the men’s and women’s teams, Abhijeet Kunte and Srinath Narayanan, will be rewarded with Rs 15 lakh each. Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, head of the Indian delegation, will receive Rs 10 lakh, and the assistant coaches will be rewarded Rs 7.5 lakh.
Narang did not forget to mention the name of Viswanathan Anand, India first Grand Master and one of the greats of chess world.
"And so here we are, double gold and finally at the top of Chess world. The seeds planted by Viswanathan Anand sir have grown into an entire forest, and we can see here an entire forest of world-class talent," he added.
Narang also said that the gold at this year's Olympiad is just the beginning and India will now strive for greater achievements.
"When we were in Budapest, I mentioned that in one of the gatherings that we had at the embassy, that the hunger for the Indian gold ended in Hungary.
But I would also now like to add to it that the hunger, like the food hunger, it raises again and again... So the hunger for excellence is far from over, and the hunger is going to continue, and we strive for even greater achievements."
The champion opens team consisted of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna. The women's team had Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal and Tania Sachdev. Apart from Harikrishna all the players were part of the felicitation ceremony.
