Chess Olympiad gold medal win a magical moment for us: Viswanathan Anand

In an interview after India won the top honours jointly with Russia on Sunday, Anand, a recipient of both the Arjuna and the Khel Ratna, said award recognition is due for the sport’s practitioners in India. “I hope this will lead to all sorts of positive things including the reconsideration in the Sports Ministry of the Arjuna award and the Dronacharya awards for chess. It has been a long time,” said the country’s first Khel Ratna awardee, India’s highest sporting honour. The last time a chess player received the Arjuna was in 2013 when Abhijeet Gupta was bestowed the honour, while a chess coach has been given the Dronacharya just twice -- Raghunandan Vasant Gokhale (1986) and Koneru Ashok (2006).

“Sometimes you need to show that we are still there and I hope this results in positive impetus for many things,” Anand said.

The five-time world champion was expectedly ecstatic about the triumph even though he didn’t expect it after server malfunction led to two Indian losses, prompting an appeal from the team. Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh lost in the second round of the finale due to disconnection and server malfunction.

“I didn’t anticipate this. I mean clearly the strongest argument in our favour was that this disconnection was not our fault. The rules are clear that if a team loses by disconnection, they forfeit the game.

“But in this particular case, it was quickly verified that the problem was not at our end. So, FIDE had to consider that in our appeal,” he said.

The 50-year-old said he was waiting to be told of a rematch instead. “I expected something along the lines of replaying the second match...You know the Russians may not have been happy with this and there would have been discussions. I was expecting a replay. “I think then the FIDE opted for the other route, declared both as winners. Look these are teething problems. We are starting online chess, this will not be the last disconnection in online chess. I think this was a fair decision,” he said.

The senior Indian men’s team comprised, apart from Anand, Vidit Gujarati (captain), P Harikrishna and Arvindh Chithambaram (reserves). The senior women’s side featured Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni and R Vaishali.

“It is nice to write their co-tales as well,” Anand said. Anand also said that his performance in the event was not great.

“I was able to rely on the team,” he explained. He also said it was a good idea to have an online Olympiad this year instead of postponing it amid the COVID-19 pandemic.