Women’s Chess Olympiad: The queens have arrived

The Indian women’s team comprising of Dronavalli Harika, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Tania Sachdev played their hearts out, navigated through some treacherous turns and made some magical moves to emerge triumphant and script history to win the team gold for the first time at the 45th edition of the Women’s Chess Olympiad which concluded at Budapest last Sunday.

Divya and Vantika also bagged Individual gold medals for their exemplary performances on Board 3 and Board 4 respectively. GM Abhijit Kunte was the coach cum captain while for the first time GMs Swayams S Mishra and Arjun Kalyan were sent as assistant coaches by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) for an overseas tournament.

The Indian team had an interesting blend of experience and youth with Harika playing her 10th Olympiad, Tania her 8th , Vaishali her 2nd while Divya and Vantika made their debuts in the Chennai Olympiad in the extra teams allowed for India as host Nation.  At the last Olympiad in Chennai, Indian women had bagged their first ever medal, a bronze.

The evolution of Indian women’s chess, which took off late, has been slow. Just three women Grandmasters (WGM) compared to 85 men GMs shows the stark trajectory of the growth of women’s chess. But the scenario is changing for the better. The maiden Olympiad gold may not be the absolute gold standard to measure the progress of women’s chess, but a big start has been made, as Viswanathan Anand observed recently.

“It’s a very good beginning. I think (there’s) still a long way to go because we must continuously keep progressing. And more important, get more and more girls to play and I think exactly this result will inspire more girls to play, and that is the hope,” he said.

The women’s team made its Olympiad debut in 1976 while the men’s team had made their debut in1956. Women’s chess in India, despite the late start, has come a long way with Koneru Humpy, Divya, Harika and Vaishali featuring in the top 15 in women’s rankings.

Interestingly, the very first Women’s National Championship was held in Bengaluru in 1974 when Vasanti Khadilkar clinched the title and later her siblings Jayshree and Rohini ensured that the title stayed amongst the trio for the next decade. All the three siblings went on to become Women International Masters (WIM) and it was Bhagyashree Thipsay who dislodged their stranglehold on the title in 1986 with a clean sweep, en route defeating all the three Khadilkar sisters. Interestingly later, the Polgar sisters -- Susan, Sofia and Judit -- were the other three siblings to dominate Hungarian and international women’s chess. During the mid eighties the Khadilkar sisters abruptly quit chess to focus on running their father’s daily newspaper in Marathi.

Bhagyshree went onto win the National title on five occasions, and if one were to point out an artist on the chequered board, she would easily be pointed out for her attractive, combinative style. Bhagyashree was the first Indian woman to earn a WGM norm but unfortunately the title eluded her. “Lack of sponsorship and opportunities were the main issues. Women’s chess in India has always taken a back seat and a few of us who have excelled at the highest level is because of parental backing and financial support,” rues Bhagyashree

 Another young Maharashtra player Anupama Abhyankar also won the national title five times and barring Saritha Reddy, who won the title, Maharashtra dominated Indian chess for two decades before the mercurial Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman stormed and stamped her authority by winning the National title six times and also became India’s first woman Grandmaster in 2001, more than decade after Viswanathan Anand became India’s first GM in 1988.

The Subbaraman sisters from Tamil Nadu, Vijayalakshmi (Viji) and Meenakshi, were WGMs with Viji being the first Indian woman to win two individual silver medals in the two consecutive Olympiads in 2000 and 2002. What makes these achievements incredible is the fact Viji played on the top board, the toughest board on both occasions. Viji too quit the game abruptly, though she did make a few sporadic appearances.

Koneru Humpy is unarguably the best ever woman player from India to make a big bang on the international scene. In 2002 Humpy became the youngest ever woman player in the world to achieve the WGM title at the age of 15 years and had held the record of the youngest ever to win the World Junior Girls title aged only 14. Humpy became the second woman player in the world to cross the Elo 2600 barrier in 2007 and went on to win gold medals with ease at the Olympiad, the Asian Championships besides a few international Open events. In her very first attempt at the World Women’s title, Humpy lost in the semifinals in 2004 and then again in 2008 and 2010. Humpy again lost to Hou Yifan in the finals of the World Championship in 2011.

Harika playing on the top board for India has always been a solid player though often overshadowed by Humpy. Harika had also achieved the GM title in 2011 but despite she and Humpy being on top 2 boards, the lack of support on the lower boards denied India a medal at the Olympiad. It is only in the last five years that players like Vaishali, who became only the third Indian woman to get a WGM title this year after a huge gap of 13 years, that the women’s scene has brightened up.

Divya Deshmukh, 18, Vantika Agrawal, 21, Savithashri and Bhakti Kulkarni have strengthened women’s chess in India. Indian women had clinched their maiden medal, a bronze, at the Chennai Olympiad in 2022 with Harika, Humpy, Vaishali, Bhakti and Tania.

“Chess in India is growing every year,” gushes Humpy. “This year we have five Indians in Grand Prix that shows the potential. I was the only player in 2009 to play this series. These youngsters have a bright future.”

Swayam S Mishra, the assistant coach who also worked with the women’s team in Chennai, points out, “Abhijit Kunte took some critical decisions courtesy his extensive experience but gave us a free hand to prepare the players. Divya was fearless like Arjun Erigaisi. Harika and Vaishali, though not their steady self, scored crucial points. Tania gave us some good draws with Black pieces while Vantika was all fireworks which was a delight for the spectators but for the coaches, our hearts were in our mouths.”

“It’s historical achievement by both the teams (men’s team also won its maiden Olympiad gold). Especially among women, Divya and Vanthika played excellent, they played key role to get gold,” adds Humpy.

In a strange coincidence, Mishra points out, India played the same opponents in the last two editions in Chennai and Budapest and lost Poland in both Olympiads. But the victory against USA in this year’s Olympiad transformed bronze into gold.