Sportsmanship headlines India's victory over the Czech Republic at the Chess Olympiad

On Thursday, day two of the Chess Olympiad resumed per schedule and the top-seeded Indian Women posted a 3.5-0.5 victory over the Czech Republic.

While the outcome wasn’t a surprise owing to the superiority of the Indian women, the victory would not have been possible had it not been for an extraordinary piece of sportsmanship by the Czech team.

As it turns out, the Indian Women arrived late at the venue for the second round match against the Czech Republic owing to delayed bus commute to the venue in Budapest, Hungary.

With the Czech team at the board per the designated time, they were well within their right to start the clock and use it to their advantage with the Indian team not having turned up.

But they declined to do and instead insisted on waiting for the Indian women to arrive.

In a video posted by Chessbaseindia, the Indian women are seen arriving late to the venue and the arbiter walks up to Tania Sachdev asking for Vantika Agarwal.

Due to conveyance issues, the Indian women team arrived late. After some of the team members arrived and the arbiter asked to start the clocks, the Czech Republic players decided not to start the clocks and wait for their opponents. This is true sportsmanship! pic.twitter.com/0GbbWlNcrl

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) September 12, 2024

And when Vantika does arrive and takes her chair, to her utter disbelief, she finds her opponent not having started the clock.

When the games did eventually begin, Divya Deskmukh, Vantika Agarwal and D. Harika won their games with Tania Sachdev being held to a draw.

While the Indian women are favourites owing to their top billing at the event, this moment of true sportsmanship will be remembered for the remainder of the 2024 Chess Olympiad.