Vidit Gujrathi and Divya Deshmukh both clinched Golds at the Chess Olympiad 2024 (X)
Coaches Abhijeet Kunte and Sankalp Gupta are also believed to have received Rs. 10 Lakh each.
Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi and Divya Deshmukh are said to receive Rs. 1 Crore each from the Maharashtra State Government for winning Gold medals in the Open and Women Chess Olympiad 2024.
Coaches Abhijeet Kunte and Sankalp Gupta are also believed to have received Rs. 10 Lakh each.
Ace Indian chess player Vidit Gujrathi, the fourth player in the country to have crossed the ELO rating threshold of 2700 and a part of the historic gold-winning Indian team at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, earlier stated he was happy with the maiden title for the nation, but also has bigger ambitions.
“It’s a good feeling (being part of the gold-winning team at the Olympiad), but nothing to be very happy about when I think of my own play. Because I have higher ambitions and I feel these things are just stepping stones,” the GM said in an exclusive interview to News18 Sports.
Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh capped off a spectacular Chess Olympiad for the nation and himself with a win over Russian Vladimir Fedoseev late September in Hungary as India bagged a historic gold.
Arjun Erigaisi, who has also had a terrific outing in Budapest picked up a win over Serbian Jan Subelj on the final day of the event.
The Indian women’s contingent also picked up their maiden gold as they got the better of Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5 to bag the prize.
The Indian unit’s maiden gold was secured as China dropped a couple of boards against the USA in their fixture.
The Indian team for the open category included Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna and Srinath Narayanan.
Praggnanadhaa added to the proceedings with his win over Anton Demchenko, as India earned a decisive 3-0 triumph over Slovenia with a game to spare.
The Indian men’s unit picked up an overall 21 out of the available 22 points in Hungary in an absolutely dominant showing.
India won their first gold medal at the Olympiad when held in person; the last time was when they shared gold during an online Olympiad held during the pandemic.
Their best performances prior to this year have been the bronzes they won in 2022 (at Chennai) and 2014 (Tromso, Norway.)
