NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi played a crucial part in the Indian team's title success in the Open section at the recently-held Chess Olympiad in Budapest. He played on Board Four and scored 7.5 points from his 10 games to finish fourth in performance rating. He notched up five victories in India's unbeaten run at the Olympiad.
Vidit said that such was the country's dominance at the event that at one point, other competing nations had only runners-up finish on their mind. "India has definitely become a chess superpower after the historic show at the Olympiad. In this tournament, I saw some of the competitors talking about us and they were in disbelief about our performance. Several countries were telling us 'We are thinking of the second spot, you (India) are assured of the gold'. I used to tell them 'There was never a doubt,'" Vidit told TOI on Wednesday.
