Indian Grandmasters D Gukesh and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi bowed out of the FIDE World Cup chess tournament after losing to Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov respectively in Baku on Wednesday.
'I'm excited to celebrate with my team and friends. There's a little secret, though.'
Gukesh had a fine run, beating Constantin Lupulescu and Saric after drawing with Richard Rapport in the day's first game.
'She is now a role model for the upcoming young generation. And I am sure that this victory will definitely motivate and inspire the Indian women, and those who are coming up.'
'I am still the kid who loves chess. It used to be the coolest toy.'
'I think the world championship matches are decided not purely by chess but by who has the better character and who has the better willpower. And I think those qualities, I did show quite well'
Men's hockey team captain Harmanpreet, under whose leadership India won a second successive bronze medal at the Olympics, said the honour is a recognition of his "fascinating" journey in which he still has plenty more to achieve.
Grandmaster D Gukesh will face his first major challenge since becoming world champion when he begins his campaign in the Tata Steel Chess tournament, which starts on Friday in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa took down World No 1 Magnus Carlsen to advance to the top-bracket quarter-finals along with Arjun Erigaisi at the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour.
The image of a smiling D Gukesh standing with outstretched hands will forever be embossed in the memory of a nation of billions.
FIDE, which has listed the venue for all its global events, has not yet announced the venue for the World Cup.
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi has a word of advice for World Championship contender D Gukesh ahead of his clash against China's Ding Liren -- just focus on your preparation and don't count yourself as a "huge favourite" going into the title showdown.
In the women's event, Padmini Rout, R Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni posted wins in the first round. D Harika will be joining them in the second round, courtesy a bye in the first round.
India has a bright future in chess as we have many players in top 10 rankings: Humpy
'The match,' asserted FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, 'has been played at the highest standards of fair play, no investigation is required.'
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured a victory over compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the third round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa continued his strong run at the Tata Steel Masters, winning his third consecutive game to take his tally to 8.5 points after the 12th round.
On current form, D Gukesh is the favourite to win the World Chess Championship title against his Chinese opponent, Ding Liren, believes Indian teenage Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa.
'It will bring the next wave of awareness and pursuit of excellence from people who want to take chess as a game or a competitive sport or even as a career.'
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional ninth move.
Teenaged Grandmaster D Gukesh shocked world number 5 Fabiano Caruana as India 'B' pulled off a superb 3-1 win over number 2 seeds USA in the eighth round of the Open section of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai on Saturday.
The Indian challenge extends to the Challengers' section, where Divya Deshmukh will compete against some strong Grandmasters.
Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh sealed a remarkable Chess Olympiad campaign with a decisive victory over GM Vladimir Fedoseev on Sunday in Hungary.
India became only the third country to win both the men's and women's gold medals at the same Chess Olympiad.
'It is truly unfathomable how this kid would come from a country with no chess culture and not only become World Champion, but inspire generations of Indian kids to push chess forward. The legend, @vishy64theking!'
World Chess Champion D Gukesh and World Junior Chess Champion Pranav Venkatesh are from the same school and were classmates till Class 10!
Divith, who has a FIDE rating of 1784 points currently, won four matches on the trot, including the last two against higher-rated opponents
A dream come true, a nice feeling. The maiden Chess Olympiad gold meant different things for the members of the five-strong Indian men's team, spearheaded stupendously by the youngest ever challenger to the world title -- D Gukesh.
Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram did not see any change in his fortunes in the blitz section and had to be content with a tie for seventh place in his maiden outing in the GCT.
Interestingly, all of R Praggnanandhaa's victories have come at the expense of the Indians so far in the tournament.
Asian chess: Srija Seshadri in joint lead
'It is not just D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.' 'There are another 20 players just behind them. Nobody imagined this was possible 5 years ago.'
'This introduction that has now been in place for sometime could well give that additional flavour for the chess players as they will be able to guess the pressure that a certain player is feeling during the course of a game.'
Following Arjun's win, World Championship challenger D Gukesh put it across Parham Maghsoodloo with black pieces, swindling the Iranian towards the end of the first time-control.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi believes the government's recent decision to stop cash rewards for attaining GM and International Master titles is 'not ideal' for the parents of chess players.
Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi and Vaishali have trained at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) that the bespectacled chess wizard set up four years ago in Chennai. The 18-year-old Gukesh and the 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa have often stated that they would not be where they are without "Vishy sir".
Inspired by the iconic trophy lift of cricket captain Rohit Sharma during the 2024 T20I World Cup in June, the chess players replicated the gesture.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lauded India's young chess players for their historic achievement at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, where both the men's and women's teams clinched their maiden gold medals.
Olympic medallists Manu Bhaker and Mirabai Chanu have joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to combat obesity, emphasizing the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.
