On Wednesday, PM Narendra Modi received a special visit from India’s men’s and women’s chess teams at his house, where he witnessed an exciting game of bullet chess between R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, both members of India’s 45th Chess Olympiad-winning team. The chess teams achieved history by winning gold in both the men’s and women’s categories in the recently ended Chess Olympiad, putting India among the elite nations to have won two gold medals in the same competition.
During the visit, PM praised their exceptional success and emphasised India’s growing significance in the world chess arena. He posted a video of Praggnanandhaa and Arjun playing a fast-paced bullet chess game on social media, captioned “Bullet Chess by two Grandmasters. Incredible! India’s chess future is quite promising.”
In the men’s tournament, the United States won silver, with Uzbekistan taking bronze. The Indian men’s team, which includes D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, and Pentala Harikrishna, won gold by defeating Slovenia. Similarly, Kazakhstan won silver in the women’s event, while the United States finished third. India’s women’s team, which included Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agarwal, and Tania Sachdev, defeated Azerbaijan in the final round and won gold.
