Chess Olympiad 2024: Vidit Gujrathi on India’s golden recipe – team camaraderie, post-match awards
Gujrathi finished unbeaten at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, winning five and drawing just as many matches.
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When the Indian team began their 2024 Chess Olympiad campaign in Budapest, Hungary last month with a 4-0 win over Morocco, they also kick started a post-match ritual on the sidelines. The custom posed some tough questions midway through the tournament, but the team stuck to it.
“Everyday [after the match] we used to come to the room and there was a star awarded to the best player or the best game,” explained Vidit Gujrathi, India’s fourth board player in the open event, in a conversation with Scroll.
As the tournament progressed, coaches and non-playing captain GM Srinath Narayanan realised that it was becoming increasingly difficult to pick the best player or best game from a match. Why so?
Because India were notching up wins at will. The team was performing so well, that India had at least two or three wins in almost every match.
“Then the coaches were in trouble like, ‘who should we award the star to?’” said Gujrathi, who remained unbeaten in Budapest, winning five of his 10 games. “It was a good problem to have. We did not want to break the tradition by giving multiple stars, so we stuck to that.
“So there was a little bit of superstition involved there as well.”
The Indians dominated the contest...
