The Alchemy of Indian Chess…
In chemistry, Silver is a true noble metal, and Bronze is an alloy forged by bringing elements together.
Honestly, what a fitting metaphor for how our teams played.
Open Team - Silver
Women’s Team - Bronze
Backing up a double-gold performance at the last Olympiad with another double podium at this edition shows real depth.
It’s proof that India’s chess ecosystem is strongly consistent and just keeps producing world-class talent year after year.
Massive congrats to both teams on keeping us at the top! 🇮🇳✨
Repost if you’d like this archaic rule for awarding individual gold medals to change
🇮🇳 Savitha Shri B scored 7.5/8 against opponents averaging 2166 Elo, achieving a TPR of 2609.
🇻🇳 Thi Mai Hung Nguyen scored 7/7 against opponents averaging 1990 Elo yet gets a TPR of 2790!
Why? For a perfect score, the current calculation simply adds 800 Elo to the opponents’ average.
So under this rule, Nguyen takes the individual gold, conditional on playing 8 games, despite Savitha’s performance coming against much stronger opposition.
Unfortunately, pretty much the same thing happened in the last Olympiad where someone got individual gold.
You prepare hard, go in with full ambition, play brilliantly, put your opponent under pressure throughout the game and then one momentary lapse can turn everything around.
That’s why chess is so brutal. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We’ll learn, come back stronger and fight again. 🇮🇳♟️#ChessOlympiad