AICF announces 3.2 crores INR prize money for Indian Chess teams

Delhi: The All India Chess Federation announced a big sum of money in rewards for the historic 45th Olympiad-winning Indian teams during a felicitation ceremony here on Wednesday.

The winners will get a total of 3.2 crore INR with each player from the winning teams receiving Rs 25 lakh, while the coaches of the men’s and women’s teams, Abhijeet Kunte and Srinath Narayanan, will be rewarded with Rs 15 lakh each.

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, head of the Indian delegation, will receive Rs 10 lakh, and the assistant coaches will be rewarded Rs 7.5 lakh.

Announcing the reward, AICF President Narang said, "The hunger for gold ended in Hungary, but the desire for success continues. In the open section, we dominated and in the women's section we owned it."

While the men's team dominated throughout the tournament and assured the gold medal before the final round, the women's team suffered a setback in between against Poland but came back stronger to win against Slovenia in the final round.

Our players are sharpshooters on the chessboard. The seeds planted by Vishwanathan Anand have grown into a forest. This will bring a new spark in chess enthusiasts. We will use this momentum to encourage the next generation of chess players," AICF Secretary General Dev Patel said during the felicitation.

Indian open team consisted of Candidates winner D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, and Arjun Erigaisi while the women's team had D Harika, Tania Sachdev, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agarwal.

In the history of the Chess Olympiad only three teams have won titles in both the women's and open sections, India became the fourth in Budapest to achieve the same.

Along with the title, India retained the Nona Gaprindashvili Cup given to the best team of the tournament.