Chess Olympiad 2024: One of my main goals was winning gold this year, says Gukesh

The celebrations at the prize distribution, where Tania Sachdev and Gukesh recreated the iconic Ric Flair walk proved how much both teams wanted the gold medals.

D. Gukesh being welcomed upon his arrival at the Chennai Airport after winning the gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad. | Photo Credit: PTI

D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi were the guiding lights for the Indian men’s team at the Chess Olympiad. The two playing on board one and three respectively in Budapest, won the individual gold medals while guiding the team to a historic first place finish.

The celebrations at the prize distribution, where Tania Sachdev and Gukesh recreated the iconic Ric Flair walk — enacted by Lionel Messi after winning the 2022 World Cup — proved how much both, men and women teams, wanted the gold medals.

Gukesh said that not being able to win gold at the Chess Olympiad in 2022 was a great regret, especially after coming so close. “We had players in both men’s and women’s teams who had played in quite a few Olympiads and not won it. It was a great regret for them and for me too.

READ MORE | Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali, and Srinath arrive in Chennai amid fanfare

“I really wanted to win gold this time. It was one of the biggest goals this year. Finally, we did it as a team. With Harika akka having played so many Olympiads (she has played in 10), winning for the first time was special for her,” said the 18-year-old.

“It was very emotional and the celebrations were just our emotions taking over,” said Gukesh at the Chennai Airport on Tuesday, after being felicitated by Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), Tamil Nadu State Chess Associaton and Velammal Group.” 

According to Gukesh, putting Arjun on board three and him on board one, despite the latter being the higher-rated player, was the non-playing captain N. Srinath’s strategy.

“Arjun has more experience playing against slightly lower-rated opponents in open tournaments and is more skilful in outplaying them in both colours.

“Pragg (Praggnanandhaa) and I have more experience playing against the top players. In that sense, both Pragg (board 2) and I were quite solid. We knew that on board three, if Arjun was in good form, he would crush the opponents,” said Gukesh. 

On the FIDE World Championship scheduled in November (Nov. 23 to Dec. 15) in Singapore against China’s Ding Liren, Gukesh sounded confident.

“I can say that me and my team are doing some nice work, and having fun together, which is important. We still have two months left,” he said.