Susan Polgar & RB Ramesh praise India for organising 'one of world's best Chess Olympiads'

Following the conclusion of the historic 44th Chess Olympiad on Tuesday, August 9, Grandmaster Susan Polgar and top Indian coach Ramesh RB took to their official social media accounts to praise India for organising one of the best competitions in history. The 2022 edition of the Olympiad is extremely significant as this was the first time India was hosting it, the place where the game has its roots.

Polgar & others praise India for 44th Chess Olympiad preparations

Taking to Twitter, Grandmaster Susan Polgar congratulated India for organising one of the best Chess Olympiads in history. She gave special praise to the hosts because they came up with such impressive preparation within months. Polgar ended her remarks by praising the Indian team for finishing the 44th Chess Olympiad as the top nation in terms of combined results. India ended with two team bronze (one in open and another in the women's section), two individual gold, one individual silver and four individual bronze.

Meanwhile, top coach Ramesh RB thanked the Tamil Nadu government, Chief Minister MK Stalin and the All India Chess Federation (AICF) for brilliantly organising the facilities for the 44th Chess Olympiad. He concluded his remarks by thanking them for the opportunity to coach a 'fabulous' team that comprised D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani and Nihal Sarin.

44th Chess Olympiad final results

Uzbekistan sprung a surprise by bagging the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands ahead of a strong Armenian team, which beat Spain 2.5-1.5 in the final round, in the Open section. On the other hand, war-torn Ukraine won an emotional gold medal in the women's event, pipping Georgia to the top prize.

Uzbekistan beat the Netherlands in the final round, thanks to Jakhongir Vakhidov's win on board 4. They edged out Armenia on the basis of a better tie-break score and remained unbeaten through the 11 rounds. They eventually finished with 19 match points. As for India, the 'B' team ended up with 18 points for third place.

On the other hand, in the women's section, top players Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali drew their games against Gulrukhba Tokhirjonova and Irina Krush respectively. The defeats for Tania Sachdev at the hands of Carissa Yip and Bhakti Kulkarni to Tatev Abrahamyan hurt the India 'A' team's chances of a gold medal.

(With PTI inputs)

Image: Twitter@AICF