If ever any proof was needed of India’s growing chess prowess, four fearless teenagers presented it to the world in a telling manner on Saturday. Silently, they made a huge statement by bringing down the mighty USA. In doing so, they provided the biggest talking-point of the 44th Chess Olympiad here.
In a display of immense self-belief, D. Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, R. Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani joined hands to script a sensational 3-1 victory over Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez Perez — ranked between 5 and 12 in live ratings. Never before has the chess world seen a bigger upset in over 90 years of this prestigious team competition.
Before a late blunder from P. Harikrishna in a 102-move marathon proved decisive as Armenia retained its one-point lead at 15 points and India 1 battled to a 2-2 draw against second seed Ukraine to stay ahead in the women’s section, Gukesh and Raunak scripted stunning victories for India 2, seeded 11.
