Hyderabad: A key member of India's Chess Olympiad winning team Koneru Humpy, in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, opened up about many aspects of chess, from winning India's first Chess Olympiad to playing online chess and the impact of the gold on next-generation chess players and many more things. Notably, it is India's first Chess Olympiad gold, won jointly with Russia, in the 96-year history of the tournament.
Excerpts....
What is your reaction after this empathic victory in the Chess Olympiad?
Koneru Humpy: Today we are very proud that we won the gold for the nation. It was a dream run for the team. We started in the first week of August when we met our main competitor China. We managed to beat them and qualified to the quarterfinals.
At that point, we started thinking of the medal. Then we were through to semifinals but we had hurdles there as well that we lost our first set to Poland. In the second set, we managed to win four games and we played out one draw. I played the final game in the semi-final, and I managed to take the team to the final in a very confident way.
On the Grand Finale with Russia
Humpy: In the final everything was under control. In the first set, we managed to meet all the draws. Our opponent Russia was in a better position than us as it has more than 100 rating points. But our fight was strong. In the second set, while the game was going on we had an internet outage. The server broke down. We lost. Well, I was also playing another game during that time. I also lost a few seconds but later on, I came to know about the incident through my captain. The captain decided to go for an appeal and the appeal was accepted.
But we didn't know that both the teams ( India and Russia) were announced winners. We just appealed as it was our right and it was also not our fault. As it was a technical issue, we were ready for a rematch. It was the decision of FIDE, to award the gold medal to both teams. It was quite surprising for us. But we are happy that we have finally won the gold medal along with Russia.
How was the preparations in the build-up to the tournament, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Was there any difficulty?
Humpy: The first event took place in March-April. The One Nations Cup. It was also a team event. We have the main team there, with Viswanathan Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, Harika Dronavalli and myself playing the tournament. Due to the pandemic, FIDE decided that there was no possibility for physical sport. So they decided to do it online.
Time to time we also play online chess during the weekend like this. But I personally don't take part in these events. Now as it has become kind of a norm there will be many more online chess tournaments in future.
What is the difference between physical and online chess championships?
Humpy: The first basic difference is a psychological fact. While playing over the board there you can change some decisions but playing online you can't as you are relying on the machine. Here the game strategy is different. Apart from that, it is the same game.
On the impact of their victory
Humpy: Well, I think this win will prove to be a confidence booster for a lot of young kids who want to take up chess as a profession. Earlier as well Indian chess players won many tournaments but those were not well recognised. Since chess is a non-Olympic sport it is always discriminated. But now having a tag of Chess Olympiad gold medallist and that too at a time when no other sports taking place due to COVID-19 enforced lockdown, I think it will have a major impact over the next generation of chess players.
