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Chess player Tania Sachdev says being a part of the Indian women’s chess team that won the gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest (Hungary) recently, is a moment she will cherish forever. Besides the women’s team, the men’s team won the gold medal too, making India the third country ever to win both the men’s and women’s titles at the same event.
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The 36-year-old says, “It reminds me of the time when India won the Cricket World Cup in 1983. That win changed everything for cricket in India, and I believe this double gold will do something similar for Indian chess. It’s a breakthrough moment.”
For Sachdev, meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi was a proud and emotional experience. “We met him on Friday (September 27),” she says, as she describes the sense of pride she and her teammates felt when PM Modi mentioned them in his recent speech during his visit to the United States.
“To hear the PM talk about us on a global stage filled us with immense pride. It felt like recognition of not just this achievement, but also of all the hard work Indian chess players have put in over the years,” she says.
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Meanwhile, a moment that stood out during the closing ceremony of the Olympiad was when the women’s team did an impromptu victory walk with their trophies, just the way Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma did in June this year after winning the Men’s T20 World Cup.
“It wasn’t planned. We thought, ‘Why not continue the tradition of celebrating wins, like we’ve seen in other sports?’ It reminded me of the way Lionel Messi (footballer) or Rohit Sharma lifted their trophies. It was our way of bringing that energy into the chess world.”
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