The Indian grandmaster scored 6.5 points from 10 games, fell ill during the second half of the tournament and called the team match against Uzbekistan decisive.
Indian grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa finished the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand with an individual bronze medal. Playing on board one, he scored 6.5 points from 10 games, including three wins. Team captain Srinath Narayanan told The Times of India that the tally did not fully reflect the quality of his play. Praggnanandhaa created chances in nearly every game, Narayanan said, and several draws could have become wins.
Praggnanandhaa acknowledged that he missed opportunities, including a winning position against Spain. He said there were only two games in which he was briefly worse. He also described having a cold and a mild fever for several days late in the Olympiad, leaving him low on energy. His condition improved after the tournament. He said the arrangements in Samarkand were generally good and suggested an illness may have spread among players.
He identified India’s match against Uzbekistan as the key team encounter. Both sides knew the result could shape the tournament, he said, and a queen blunder in Nihal Sarin’s game proved costly. Praggnanandhaa stressed that blunders can happen to any player and said the team recovered after the defeat. India’s silver, he said, was still a good result in a strong field.
The Olympiad followed a strong run for Praggnanandhaa. In June, he won Norway Chess after beating then-world champion Magnus Carlsen twice, becoming the first Indian to win the event. He later became the first Indian to claim the overall Grand Chess Tour title. The Candidates Tournament in Cyprus, where he had sought a chance to challenge for the world title, remained a disappointment, he said.
His next scheduled events were Clutch Chess in the United States from October 27 and a pilot event on the Total Chess World Championship Tour in Budapest on November 10. Praggnanandhaa said he has enjoyed his chess in recent months and that his results are helping him move on from the Candidates setback.