A fascinating combination of young prodigies and long-serving model-breakers, containing Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Tania Sachdev, R Vaishali as well as Bhakti Kulkarni. They produced the history of Indian chess. As the first ever Indian females’s group to win a medal in a Chess Olympiad.
The Indian team was in close proximity to the gold medal for a lot of the competition as well as was in the sole lead entering into the last round, losing 1-3 to the United State. Tania and Bhakti bungled their next game, while Humpy as well as Vaishali hung on for a draw. tania was unbeaten in 10 video games prior to the last round, scoring 8 points. Yet she had a hard time to come to terms with her mystifying loss to American Carissa Yip on the final day of play.
A historic initial medal and also a homage to a missed out on possibility
For a while, even the bronze medal was in uncertainty. After the last round, Ukraine and Georgia won the gold as well as silver medals in the women’s classification, respectively. It took some crazy tie-breaker calculations before it was determined that India would win the bronze medal.
The two masters on the Indian team, Humpy and Harika, were theoretically the highest possible rated players on the group. Humpy becoming grandmaster at the age of 15. She was the first Indian women chess player to earn the title of grandmaster.
Harika took out all the quits to accompany her team. Harika balanced her sophisticated pregnancy stage with the roughness of a long classical competition and also played seven successive draws. She missed out on the last two matches, however appeared with the rest of the group.
Tania is a worldwide grandmaster. Unlike the stereotype of the chess gamer as unsociable and quiet. She is outgoing, talkative as well as a popular option for banners as well as commentators. With this pandemic, she opened up chess to countless brand-new fans. She was additionally a solid fighter in this tournament, winning as called for.
Bhakti, 30, played the very first 3 rounds as well as was rested for the following 6. After Harika withdrew, she was placed in the last 2 rounds. She was one of the gamers who whipped Kazakhstan 3.5-0.5 in the penultimate round, but regrettably did not rather stand up in the final round.
Among those starters was debutant Vaishali, the youngest participant of the team. This Olympiad showed that she is coming to be an useful staff member. She won with Humpy in a match against the 3rd seed as well as former champion Georgia. offering India its only lead at the middle after six rounds of play.
Prior to each round, professional photographers from the regional media gathered to catch her every step. She drew via as well as eventually won the specific bronze medal.
Verdict
The Indian ladies’s team’s previous best achievement was fourth place at the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. It was a years afterwards that their first bronze medal came. But in a sport where there is a significant gender gap in regards to engagement as well as strength of play, this bronze medal can well be the rallying cry for a brand-new generation of women.