Chess Olympiad 2022: Indian Women's Team Scripts History By Winning First-Ever Medal In The Women's Section

The Indian women’s team made it to a podium finish for the first time at Chess Olympiad 2022 as they won the bronze medal

The Indian women’s chess team scripted history by winning the country’s first-ever medal in the women’s section at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

The India A team, comprising Koneru Humpy, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, Harika Dronavalli and Bhakti Kulkarni, secured the bronze medal after a 1-3 loss to USA in the final round match.

In the final round, Humpy and Vaishali drew their games while Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni ended up losing their games.

Abhijit Kunte, the India A coach, was all praise for the team as he states, “The team has worked really hard in the last three or four months and this is India’s first-ever medal in the history of the Olympics, this should be the beginning of much better days for women’s chess in India.”

In the open section, the young India B team, which impressed everyone with their brilliant performances throughout the event, handed the country its second bronze medal after thrashing Germany 3-1.

Besides medals in the team events, these women were awarded medals for their individual performances: R Vaishali (third board), Tania Sachdev (third board) and Divya Deshmukh (reserve board) claimed individual bronze medals.

Moreover, Uzbekistan and Ukraine emerged as the champions in the open and women’s section respectively at the 44th Chess Olympiad. The Uzbekistan team expressed happiness with their country getting a gold medal as the country was awarded the hosting rights for the 2026 Olympiad at the FIDE Congress.