India has won historic gold medals in the Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad. In the 97-year history of the Olympiad, India has secured the first position in both the categories for the first time. In the 11th round of the Open category, India defeated Slovenia 3.5-0.5. Whereas, the women's team defeated Azerbaijan in the last round by a margin of 3.5-0.5.

In the open category, India had confirmed the first position after the 10th round, but the women's team's gold was confirmed after the 11th round. Because the second-ranked Kazakhstan team played a 2-2 draw against the USA. Due to this, India remained first with 19 points and Kazakhstan remained second with 18 points. The Chess Olympiad was held in Budapest, Hungary on 10 September.

India won 3 matches in the 11th round In the women's event, after the 10th round, India and Kazakhstan were tied at the top with 17-17 points. In the 11th round, India defeated Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5. Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agarwal from the team won their respective matches. Vaishali Rameshbabu played a draw to take India to 3.5 points.

The result of the match between Kazakhstan and America was to decide the gold medal in the women's event. The match between the two ended in a 2-2 draw. Due to this, Kazakhstan got stuck at 18 points, while India secured the first position with 19 points and won the gold.

In the women's category, India won 7 rounds in a row, then lost against Poland in the 8th round. In the 9th round, the team played a draw against the USA. In the 10th round, the team defeated China and in the 11th round, Azerbaijan and confirmed the gold with 19 points.

Divya Deshmukh won the 10th and 11th rounds.

The Open Team remained undefeated in the Open Team Tournament and had confirmed the gold by securing 19 points after the 10th round. After winning 8 matches in a row, the team played a draw against Uzbekistan. Then the team won the gold by defeating America in the 10th round and Slovenia in the 11th round.

In the last round, Gukesh Domaraju, R Praggnanandhaa, and Arjun Irigasi from India won their respective matches. Vidit Santosh Gujrati played a draw and took the team's score to 3.5. India won the 11th round and got 21 points. While China and America remained in second place with 16-16 points.

Arjun had ensured gold for India by winning the last match in the 10th round of the open category.

How are points awarded? In the Chess Olympiad, in every round, a team has to compete with another team. In every match, matches are played on 4 different boards. That means one round is of 4 points. The team that scores 2.5 or more points wins the match of that round. In case of winning in every round, the team gets 2 points. In case of a draw, one point is awarded and in case of losing, no points are awarded.

India's open team won 10 out of 11 rounds and drew 1. Hence India got 21 points. Whereas, the women's team won 9 matches, drew 1, and lost 1, hence the team got 19 points. However, even these points were enough to win the gold.

The first Chess Olympiad was held in 1927 The first Chess Olympiad was organized in 1924, although it was an unofficial event. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) then started organizing the official Chess Olympiad in 1927. The Olympiad was held every year until 1950, it was not organized during the World War. But after 1950 it started being organized once every two years. The 45th Chess Olympiad was organized in Budapest, Hungary.