File image of Tania Sachdev.© NDTV
Indian chess veteran Tania Sachdev has urged state governments to come forward and support players from different sports to maintain and develop a pipeline of young players. Sachdev, who was part of India’s historic double gold medal campaign in the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024, spoke about this in a candid discussion at the NDTV World Summit. Alongside Vantika Agrawal, who was also part of the women’s team that clinched gold, Sachdev also recalled the Victory Day and the planned celebrations.
Hailing from Delhi, Sachdev mentioned that she had been the only chess representative for India from the capital for almost 16 years, until the emergence of Vantika. She expressed the importance of state governments maintaining a youth pipeline.
“There is a reason why we see so many grandmasters from Tamil Nadu. Why does every girl want to play badminton? Because she has seen a PV Sindhu,” said Sachdev, speaking at the World Summit from NDTV.
“Unless state governments recognize the efforts of their own stakeholders, how are you going to seriously inspire the youth of a profession?” asked Sachdev.
In the 45th Chess Olympiad, India’s men’s and women’s teams won gold. However, Sachdev, who has been part of the Indian Olympiad chess team since 2008, had to wait 16 years to taste gold. Her teammate D Harika had to wait 20 years. Sachdev spoke of the path to gold as the journey of a lifetime.
“This is something we worked on for not one or two years, but 16 years for me and even longer for her (Harika). Once the work was done, we all felt more emotional than ever. It was okay way beyond winning gold, it was the journey of a lifetime for many of us,” said Sachdev.
Vantika Agrawal also revealed that the chess team had planned special celebrations once they knew that they had both won gold.
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