Chess Olympiad: What made Indian women’s team tick and claim historic gold?

The squad of Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev, with Abhijit Kunte arsenic captain, was missing seasoned Koneru Humpy, the top-ranked Indian pistillate successful the world.

On the apical committee for India astatine the Chess Olympiad, Harika had a sobering tournament, losing 3 games retired of the 9 she played. On committee 2, Vaishali besides endured 2 defeats successful back-to-back games.

But the Indian squad was propelled to golden by 18-year-old Divya, who played successful each 11 games and scored 9.5 points to unafraid an idiosyncratic golden medal connected committee three. Vantika Agrawal, connected committee four, was besides a revelation, going unbeaten successful the tourney and winning six of her 9 games. Tania Sachdev was a dependable beingness for India successful the 5 games she played, not losing immoderate 1 of them.

The Indian Express got Grandmaster RB Ramesh, 1 of the apical coaches successful India, to interruption down the Indian players’ styles and their personalities:

Harika Dronavalli astatine the Chess Olympiad

“Harika is simply a precise coagulated player. Her benignant is thing similar that of (Pentala) Harikrishna. You tin expect much draws erstwhile she plays and not arsenic galore defeats. But this clip she had a fewer losses. She recovered from that precise well, and astatine the close time: with the women’s squad truthful adjacent to winning gold. She has a batch of acquisition astatine the apical level,” says Ramesh.

Harika Dronavalli reacts aft securing her triumph successful Round 11 of the Chess Olympiad. (PHOTO: FIDE / Michal Walusza)

Harika herself admitted that her show connected Sunday was driven by guilt.

“This was a roller-coaster thrust for me. I person ne'er played truthful atrocious successful a squad championship. Always played solid. Never mislaid 3 games successful a squad event. This guilt was troubling me. At the past Olympiad, I couldn’t play successful the past crippled due to the fact that I couldn’t adjacent sit. I was large and was told I could present anytime. Somewhere, I was having that guilt that we wouldn’t bash our best…,” Harika told FIDE aft winning her past game. “I came into the Olympiads arsenic a 13-year-old, 20 years back, with a imagination to triumph an Olympiad medal, and finally, it happened today!”

Vaishali astatine the Chess Olympiad

Ramesh has seen Vaishali’s ascendency from adjacent quarters, having shaped her vocation from the formative years.

“Vaishali did good for the astir part, barring the 2 back-to-back defeats. She besides recovered good from those 2 defeats. It’s a beauteous decent show from her,” was Ramesh’s assessment.

“While Harika is simply a positional player, Vaishali is an assertive player. She has to get definite kinds of positions, past everything volition beryllium fine. If she gets into positions that she’s not comfy with, she volition struggle,” Ramesh points out.

To simplify a “positionally-inclined player” from an “aggressive player”, Ramesh reaches into a cricket analogy. “A positional subordinate is similar Rahul Dravid, benignant of. An assertive subordinate is possibly a (Virender) Sehwag,” helium says.

Divya Deshmukh astatine the Chess Olympiad

Ramesh heaps praise connected 18-year-old Divya, who claimed an idiosyncratic golden medal.

“Divya has been the champion performer among the women. She’s consistently delivered erstwhile required. In pugnacious situations, she has won the match. The full twelvemonth has been precise bully for her. In each tournament, she has been steadily gaining standing points. She’s successful bully signifier and successful this tourney was adjacent better.

“She’s an aggressively-inclined player, alternatively than a positionally-inclined one. All the players who are doing good astatine the Budapest Olympiad are progressive players. It’s the positionally-inclined players who are having a pugnacious time. She’s rather assertive arsenic a player, a risk-taking subordinate who plays for the win.”

Vantika Agrawal astatine the Chess Olympiad

Talking astir India’s 4th committee star, Vantika, who besides won idiosyncratic golden for committee 4, Ramesh says: “Vantika besides has been doing precise good astatine the Olympiad. In the women’s section, Divya and Vantika would beryllium the highlights. She’s delivered wins successful captious moments for the team.”

Tania Sachdev astatine the Chess Olympiad

Talking astir India’s 5th member, Tania Sachdev, Ramesh says: “Like Harika, Tania has not played successful excessively galore games astatine the Olympiad. Whenever she’s played, she’s delivered.”