Chess Olympiad: Savitha Shri’s heroics bring medal; Arjun Erigaisi becomes the hero as India’s silver bag in the open part

India secures medals at Chess Olympiad (FIDE photo) NEW DELHI: Chess did not enter the Baskar family through Savitha Shri, but through her elder brother Mugesh, with whom their father initially decided to build a chess career. Savith’s own interest came from watching him play.By the time the two kids were training under coach RB Ramesh from Chennai, a decision had to be made, with the cost of chess getting heavier with each passing day. The family could not sustain two chess careers and Mugesh dropped out after the eighth standard while Savitha continued.Her father Baskar, an electrician in Singapore at the time, eventually quit the job altogether and returned to India to support her career, a transition so difficult that the family once pawned his gold jewelery to finance her entry fee to a national tournament.“It was a very difficult decision to take,” Baskar told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interaction after it was announced that Savitha would represent the Indian women’s team at the 2026 Chess Olympiad.The sacrifice was the biggest gain yet in Samarkand on Sunday.

Savith’s clutch saves the day

Round 11 started well enough for the Indian women, with Koneru Humpy winning in just 24 moves. But the match changed quickly. Divya Deshmukh lost her game and Vantika Agrawal settled for a draw and left it all to play for on the fourth board.A draw there would be enough to keep India’s medal hopes alive. For a long time it looked like that might not come either as Savitha found herself at a disadvantage against Meri Arabidze, and for a while it looked like India might finish this Olympics without a medal altogether.She didn’t let it go. Playing Black in the Queen’s Gambit flavored middle game, Savitha came under sustained pressure as Arabidze’s pieces became more active and her own king was pushed around the board.In a marathon 83-move battle that swung through a queen and rook middlegame before turning into a rook endgame, Savitha defended with remarkable patience, meeting check after check and repeatedly finding the only moves to keep her position alive.The game finally settled at the end of a draw, when Arabidze could not get through despite repeated attempts and the point was shared after 83 moves.It was, fittingly, Savitha who delivered again when India needed her most.The match itself ended 2:2. Humpy’s win and Savitha’s draw offset Divya’s loss and Vantika’s own draw and the Indian women closed the tournament with 17 points to finish third.China ran away with gold on 20 points, while Kazakhstan’s own draw in the final round was enough for silver on 18.

Erigaisi emerges as hero, India survives in tiebreak for open silver

If the women’s story was about redemption, the open section has something better for you. Arjun Erigaisi endured a torrid start to this Olympics when he replaced a rested Praggnanandha on the 1st deck in a loss to lower-ranked Thai opposition on the opening day.What followed was a fairly ordinary campaign by his standards. One win against Spain followed by six straight draws. No one was prepared for what came in the final round.Erigaisi, who played black against veteran Peter Lek, found himself in a long, rough battle with Ruy Lopez that stretched deep into the game, with pieces gradually changing rather than early fireworks.Both sides maneuvered for what seemed like ages, queens and rooks repeatedly circling each other without changing much.It was Erigaisi who found the breakthrough late, working his queen and bishop into Leko’s position and setting up a decisive rook sacrifice, exchanging his rook for Leko’s on h2 before his queen pounced on checks that left the white king nowhere to hide.Leko resigned soon after.That win, along with draws from Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin, was enough to salvage a 2-2 draw against Hungary, even after Gukesh, who was unbeaten in the series before the final round, lost on the fourth board to Hungarian in the form of Gleb Dudin.The result left India on 18 points, level with Germany, but India’s decisive score (405.5 to Germany’s 386.5) proved decisive, handing them silverware behind a rampant Uzbekistan side who finished 20th.

India Gaprindashvili Cup bag

There was one more award that India walked away with, and it might be the most telling of all. The Gaprindashvili Cup, awarded to the federation with the best combined finish in the open and women’s sections, went to India, their 5th place total (open silver, women’s bronze) beating 8th Uzbekistan and 12th United States. It concluded a fortnight in which two Indian teams finished consistently with the highest points in ten days.Individual medals:

• Women: Savitha Shri (Gold in Plate 5), Divya Deshmukh (Silver in Plate 3), Koneru Humpy (Bronze in Plate 1), Vantika Agrawal (Bronze in Plate 4)
• Open: D Gukesh (Silver on Plate 4), R Praggnanandhaa (Bronze on Plate 1)