Artificial Intelligence, an upcoming birthday, and the ambition to make India a sporting powerhouse came up for discussion when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the Olympiad gold-winning Indian chess teams at his residence, seeking to understand their mindset in the high-pressure event. In the interaction that took place on Thursday evening, both the men”s and women”s teams, who won gold medals in the event for the first time ever, sat with the PM to share their experience and also ask him about his interest in sports.
The men’s team featured the youngest ever world championship challenger D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and captain Srinath Narayanan.
The women’s team was made up of R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, D Harika, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal. They were captained by Abhijit Kunte.
Modi asked them about their sensational run during which the men’s team won 21 of the 22 points on offer and the women gathered 19 from a total of 22. He also wanted to know how their opponents reacted to the stupendous performance.
“All our opponents expressed their happiness for us,” responded Harika.
“We won so convincingly, it felt that nobody could touch us,” added Sachdev, who said her team was determined to beat USA, the country that denied them the top spot during the previous Olympiad in the final round.
Gukesh, who is now gearing up for the much-awaited world title clash against China”s Ding Liren in November-December, reiterated that it was team-work that steered the gold-winning show.
“This experience was a great team effort. We were in excellent form, we were all super motivated. In the last Olympiad, there was one match which I should have won to guarantee a gold for India but unfortunately lost,” he said.
“This time we were motivated to win,” the reticent 18-year-old added.
The PM was curious to know how AI is shaping the future of chess where players routinely test themselves against computers.
“With AI, chess has evolved, the computers have become much stronger, showing new ideas,” said Praggnanandhaa.
“AI is available to all, it has democratised chess,” added Gujrathi.
Sachdev then threw a query at the PM, asking him about his interest in sports and Modi said it was an important indicator of a nation”s growth.
“Economy is not the only indicator of growth and development. Development requires invincibility in every field. So if you are talking about films, how many Oscars are your films winning? If you talk about science then the number of Nobel prize winners.
“In the same way, when our kids win maximum gold medals, that’s how our country becomes great,” he answered.
The players were charmed by the veteran leader with Vantika expressing surprise that he was aware of her birthday which is coming up on Saturday.
“He knew that, I was very surprised. I was 9 when he felicitated me in Gujarat during a junior competition and that motivated me,” she said.
“The way he remembered Vantika”s birthday showed how much he cares about the sport and players,” added Gukesh.
Vantika also gifted the PM a picture of that felicitation function in which she was presented a shawl by the leader.
Physical fitness crucial
The players quizzed the PM on his hectic daily schedule and how he copes with the workload. Modi said physical fitness is the key not just form but also for them even though they are engaged in a primarily a mental sport.
“You must be getting training, you must be told about food and drink, eat these things. Before the game, eat this much, don’t eat, you must be told everything. I believe that if we develop the habit of these things, then we can digest all the problems,” he explained.
“…and as I said, yoga, meditation are really very powerful in this,” he said.
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