3 min readJul 24, 2026 07:00 AM IST
India on Thursday announced its team for the upcoming Chess Olympiad, headlined by Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi in the Open section with Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali Rameshbabu the big names in the Women’s section. The Chess Olympiad will start on Sept 15 and go on till Sept 27 at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
India will be a little concerned about the form of world champion Gukesh who hasn’t had the best of times since becoming world champion. In the space of 19 months, he’s lost 75 rating points. In the recently concluded Chennai Grand Masters, Gukesh’s lost three of his seven matches and finished last with 2 points.
Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan said about Gukesh that confidence is his superpower, and when he’s low on that, it affects his results. “Gukesh is very good at calculation. But there’s an element of confidence in his game, which is probably one of the reasons why there are a lot of ups and downs in his play. When he’s really confident, he plays the same way, but he pulls off things. But when his confidence is impacted a bit, there are also big drops in his play,” Srinath said to the Indian Express.
🇮🇳♟ Introducing Team India for the FIDE Chess Olympiad!
India (Open): Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi
Captain: Srinath NarayananIndia (Women): Humpy Koneru, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri B… pic.twitter.com/Um9qX7JyLf
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 23, 2026
Pragg, meanwhile, looks in good form with the 20-year-old winning the Norway Chess tournament in June. After a shaky start, he defeated Alireza Firouzja, world no 1 and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, world champion D Gukesh and Vincent Keymer on his way to the title.
In 2024, the Indian team had created history in Budapest as they won the Open event gold in the 45th Chess Olympiad. In a comfortable position after their superb win against USA, India just had to avoid defeat against Slovenia in the final round.
But Gukesh, Erigaisi and Praggnanadhaa did more than that as they won their respective matches in the 11th and final round. Vidit Gujrathi drew his match on Board 4. The Indian team of Gukesh, Arjun, Pragg, Vidit and Harikrishna clinched the country’s first ever gold in the history of the prestigious team event.
There was double delight soon as the Indian women’s team also won gold for the country after a dominant 3.5-0.5 victory against Azerbaijan. D Harika was at her technical best striking on the top board for the team and Divya yet again outclassed her opponent to confirm her individual gold medal on the third board as well. After R Vaishali drew her game, the Indian team confirmed the victory with Vantika Agrawal scoring another brilliant triumph.
Teams:
India (Open): Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi
Captain: Srinath Narayanan
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India (Women): Humpy Koneru, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri B
Captain: Swayams Mishra
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