Indian Chess Olympiad medalist Nihal Sarin responds to ‘play for Pakistan’ troll with three words

Nihal Sarin responds to social media troll NEW DELHI: Indian grandmaster Nihal Sarin needed no more than three words to stop a troll on X. After the Indian Open team ended their campaign at the 46th Samarkand Chess Olympiad with a silver medal, Nihal posted a simple message of celebration, writing, “Happy to win silver for Team India. Congratulations Uzbekistan.”It was supposed to be a non-controversial post. Instead, he drew a nasty response from one user. “Plz stop playing for India. Play for Pakistan,” read the now-deleted comment.Nihal didn’t let it slide, nor did he engage at length. His reply was as brief as the provocation. The Kerala-born grandmaster wrote: “on board 0?”

A mixed personal campaign

The switch came at the end of a tournament that had individual ups and downs for the 22-year-old chess star.He started in great form, winning his first three matches against Thailand, Indonesia and Italy before the results cooled off with draws against Spain and the Netherlands.The sixth round against the hosts Uzbekistan proved to be the turning point. Nihal made a mistake in a winning position against Nodirbko Yakubboev, a loss that left him visibly shaken. He lost again in the very next round, in a marathon 88-move battle against England’s Luke McShane.These two defeats were the only blemishes on an otherwise solid campaign; Nihal settled down in the following rounds, drawing with Germany’s Frederik Svan, defeating Uzbekistan’s second team Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov in the 10th round and closing the tournament with a draw against Benjamin Gledur of Hungary.However, individual numbers always mattered less than the team’s result. Open side India secured silver behind hosts Uzbekistan.