Chess: Strategic Insights from India's Olympic Champions

September 22, 2024, turned out to be a watershed moment for Indian Chess: Our Open and Women’s teams won the Gold medal in the Chess Olympiad 2024. Our first team Gold in either section in almost 100 years since the first Olympiad in 1927. This Double Gold has announced India as the new super power in Chess!

Adding to the team gold were four individual gold medals won by our players for their performance: Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal in the women's section, and D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi in the open. Divya’s playing style is characterised by a strong pull towards positions with initiative, dynamism and activity. Additional assets up her arsenal are a wide opening repertoire, sharp tactical ability, and infinite confidence. Vantika is quieter, as a person and as a player. Afterall your game is to some extent a reflection of your personality! She too has a sharp sense of tactics, but I believe Vantika’s main strength during the Olympiad was her ability to handle her nerves. Both Divya and Vantika delivered consistently for the team throughout the event, but in Vantika’s case her game was often the last to finish, when the team’s final score would eventually depend on her result. Moreover, she was playing under severe time pressure in almost all her games at Budapest! The ability to stay calm and keep finding good moves by focusing on the job at hand, despite time, and match pressure, served her well.

Gukesh’s monstrous play in his recent events including the Olympiad is in no less measure thanks to his ability to handle pressure by sticking to specific routines during a tournament and maintaining a Buddha-like calmness during the game. When pressure challenges you to give your best rather than intimidate you, it turns into an ally. Arjun Erigaisi was fielded on board three by the Indian team as he is particularly good as scoring against strong players who are still slightly weaker than him - this involves strong Grandmasters who are between the rating range of 2500-2700. As my coach recently pointed out, Arjun's strength involves the ability to take high risks in a game without being reckless, a specialised skillset he is being duly rewarded for.

In the past few months we have learnt about various tactical motifs. Let us observe Arjun's spectacular play against the Serbian team at the Olympiad. This game demonstrates how to combine these different elements.

Diagram 1 : GM Indjic Alexander vs. GM Arjun Erigaisi, Round 4, Olympiad 2024

Q: It is Black turn to move in the diagram position. White has just moved his Rook from b2 to b3, supporting the c3 pawn which was attacked by the Black Knight. How does Black win?

Themes: Battery, Overloading, Sacrifice, Deflection, and Pin

Understanding the position's fundamentals helps us choose the proper move. The Black Rook and Queen form a ‘Battery’ on the a-file. The White Queen is on the Back Rank, apparently guarding it, where she could also come under a ‘Pin’ if Black places his Rook on a1. The Black Knight, Queen and Bishop attack the d4 pawn. The Knight on c2 performs a dual role of guarding a1 and d4 right now. So this Knight is 'Overloaded'. The d4 pawn is also supported by the pawn on c3, which is protected by the Rook on b3 who also guards the back rank indirectly as it can always go back to b1 from b3 if push comes to shove. So, the White Rook is also 'Overloaded'.

We can conclude that Black is attacking, and White is defending. Let's see how Arjun exploited his chances:

Answer: Black played 1…Nc3!! The pawn is protected, but Black's idea is to 'Deflect' the Rook from the b file, preventing Rb1 in future. For White's 2. Rc3 Black continued 2…Bd4!! to which White replies 3. Nd4, thus the White Knight too is deflected from the defence of the Back Rank. Two Pieces have been sacrificed for two pawns but now Black can exploit the Back Rank weakness. Black wins with 3…Ra1!

Diagram 2 : The final position on the Board!

The finishing touch. White loses his Queen by force, and he will also lose either his Knight on d4, or the Rook on c3, as the Knight on d4 cannot move back to e2 in order to protect the Queen, due to the ‘Pin’ on the a7-g1 diagonal! If White continues with 4.Qa1 Qa1 (Check!) 5. Kf2, we pick up the Rook next with 5…Qc3. Seeing that he would be down huge material with the end inevitable, White resigned after Black’s 3…Ra1. 0-1.

(Soumya Swaminathan is an International Master and Woman Grandmaster in Chess. She has been World Junior Champion and Commonwealth Gold Medalist)