NEW DELHI: Chess came to the Baskar household not through Savitha but through her older brother, Mugesh, whom their father had originally set out to build a chess career around. Savitha's own interest came from watching him play. By the time both children were training under Chennai-based coach RB Ramesh, a decision had to be made, with the expense of chess becoming heavier with each passing day. The family couldn't sustain two chess careers, and Mugesh stepped back after the eighth standard while Savitha kept going. Her father, Baskar, an electrician in Singapore at the time, eventually quit that job entirely and returned to India to support her career, a transition so difficult that the family once pawned his gold jewellery to fund a national tournament entry fee. "Taking that decision was very difficult," Baskar told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interaction after it was announced that Savitha would represent the Indian women's team at the 2026 Chess Olympiad. On Sunday, in Samarkand, that sacrifice produced its biggest payoff yet.
Savitha's clutch draw saves the day
Round 11 began well enough for India's women, with Koneru Humpy wrapping up a win in just 24 moves. But the match swung quickly. Divya Deshmukh lost her game, and Vantika Agrawal settled for a draw, leaving everything to play for on the fourth board. A draw there would have been enough to keep India's medal hopes alive. For a long stretch, it looked like even that might not arrive as Savitha found herself worse against Meri Arabidze, and for a while it felt as though India might finish this Olympiad without a medal at all. She didn't let it happen. Playing black in a Queen's Gambit-flavoured middlegame, Savitha came under sustained pressure as Arabidze's pieces grew more active and her own king was pushed around the board. Through a marathon 83-move battle, one that swung through a queen-and-rook middlegame before resolving into a rook endgame, Savitha defended with remarkable patience, meeting check after check and repeatedly finding the only moves that kept her position alive. The game eventually settled into a drawn rook ending, with Arabidze unable to force a breakthrough despite repeated tries, and the point was shared after 83 moves. It was, fittingly, Savitha who once again delivered when India needed her most. The match itself ended 2-2. Humpy's win and Savitha's draw offset Divya's loss and Vantika's own draw, and India's women closed the tournament on 17 points, finishing third. China ran away with gold on 20 points, while Kazakhstan's own draw in the final round was enough to edge them to silver on 18.
Erigaisi turns hero, India survive on tiebreak for open silver
If the women's story was about redemption, the open section has something better for you. Arjun Erigaisi had endured a torrid start to this Olympiad, losing to lower-rated Thai opposition on the opening day while filling in for a rested Praggnanandhaa on Board 1. What followed was a fairly ordinary campaign by his standards. One win, against Spain, followed by six straight draws. Nobody was quite prepared for what came in the final round. Playing black against veteran Peter Leko, Erigaisi found himself in a long, grinding Ruy Lopez battle that stretched deep into the game with pieces trading down slowly rather than any early fireworks. Both sides manoeuvred for what felt like an age, queens and rooks repeatedly circling each other without much changing. It was Erigaisi who found the breakthrough late, working his queen and bishop into Leko's position and setting up a decisive rook sacrifice, trading his rook for Leko's on h2, before his queen swept in with checks that left White's king with nowhere to hide.
Leko resigned soon after. That win, alongside draws from Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin, was enough to salvage a 2-2 draw against Hungary, even after Gukesh, who was on an unbeaten streak before the final round, lost to Hungary's in-form Gleb Dudin on the fourth board. The result left India on 18 points, level with Germany, but India's superior tiebreak score (391.5 to Germany's 386.5) proved decisive, handing them silver behind a rampant Uzbekistan side that finished on 20.
India bag Gaprindashvili Cup
There was one more prize India walked away with, and it might be the most telling of all. The Gaprindashvili Cup, awarded to the federation with the best combined finish across the open and women's sections, went to India, their rank sum of 5 (silver in the open, bronze in women's) edging out Uzbekistan's 8 and the United States' 12. It capped a fortnight in which India's two teams, across ten days of chess, ended up the most consistent nation in Samarkand. Individual medals:
Women: Savitha Shri (gold on Board 5), Divya Deshmukh (silver on Board 3), Koneru Humpy (bronze on Board 1), Vantika Agrawal (bronze on Board 4)
Open: D Gukesh (silver on Board 4), R Praggnanandhaa (bronze on Board 1)
