Chess Olympiad: How Champions Celebrated

India created history at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday as the men's and women's teams won their maiden titles in a rare clean sweep of gold medals.

The Indian men's team outclassed Slovenia 3.5-0.5 while their women counterparts beat Azerbaijan with an identical margin in the 11th and final round to emerge triumphant at the 45th Chess Olympiad.

India became only the third country to win both the men's and women's gold medals in the same Chess Olympiad after China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The Indian men had won two bronze medals -- in 2014 and 2022, while the women had won bronze in the 2022 in Chennai.

The Indian men comprising Dommaraju Gukesh, Arjun Eigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Vidit Gujrathi and Harikrishna Pentala dominated from the start, winning 10 matches and drawing just one to finish with 21 points.

Out of the 44 games played by the Indian men's team, they suffered only one loss when Pragganandhaa was beaten by Wesley So of the US in the penultimate round.

The women's quarter of Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Tania Sachdev scored 19 points in total to emerge the winner ahead of Kazakhstan.

Gukesh, Arjun, Divya and Vantika also won individual gold medals. Gukesh enjoyed a dream tournament, finishing with 9 points in 10 games to claim the gold medal on the top board, while Arjun scored 10 points in 11 games to win individual gold on board three.

Divya, who played all games, tallied 9.5 points to claim the individual gold on board three and Vantika bagged the individual gold medal on board four.

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