India made history by achieving a double gold in the Chess Olympiad, winning outright in both the open and women's sections. Both Indian teams dominated in the final round, securing convincing 3½-½ victories. In the open section, Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi led the way, while Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal starred in the women's section. All four players capped their stellar performances with individual gold medals. The United States and Uzbekistan took silver and bronze in the open section, while Kazakhstan and the United States claimed silver and bronze in the women's section.
This was the second time a country won gold in both sections since Soviet times (China also achieved this feat in 2018). The Soviet Union had a dominant run of double golds between 1980 and 1986, a streak that was interrupted by the Hungarian women's team, led by the Polgar sisters, who claimed gold in 1988 and 1990 ahead of the still existing Soviet Union.
Both Indian teams delivered emphatic 3½-½ wins in the final round. The open team only needed a draw to secure gold, while the women's team could have ended tied for first with Kazakhstan if the latter had won their match against the United States. However, Kazakhstan's draw meant India's outright victory in both sections, eliminating the need for tiebreak calculations to decide the champions.
The open team triumphed over Slovenia with wins from Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, while the women's team defeated Azerbaijan thanks to victories from Harika Dronavalli, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal. Both teams opted to go all out in the final round, securing gold with a flourish rather than relying on safer, more calculated strategies.
Individually, Gukesh and Arjun set new benchmarks, each winning gold medals on their respective boards. Gukesh, in particular, impressed with a 9/10 score and a 3056 tournament performance rating (TPR), improving on his already stellar performance in 2022. Arjun, meanwhile, scored 2968 TPR, which would have been the highest overall in the previous edition. Gukesh's performance earned him 30.1 rating points, moving him to world number 5 in the live ratings, while Arjun gained 19.2 points, overtaking Fabiano Caruana to become the third-ranked player, just 2.8 points shy of the 2800 mark. The Indian women's team, although not as dominant as their male counterparts, maintained control through the first seven rounds. PM Modi praised the achievements of both teams. "Bharat is full of energy and dreams. Every day we see new achievements. Today, both India men's and women's teams have won gold medals in Chess Olympiad," he said.
