Heroes' Homecoming: Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali, and Srinath's touchdown amid fanfare

Chennai: India’s chess champions, R Praggnanandhaa, R Vaishali, and D Gukesh, who were part of the team that won gold in both men and women categories in the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Hungary, returned home on Tuesday to a rousing reception.

Hundreds of chess enthusiasts and sports lovers, holding the national flag, waited at the Chennai International Airport to welcome the brother-sister duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali, and Gukesh, who arrived here. Along with them, the chess team’s coach Srinath Narayanan, was also given a warm welcome by officials from the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (IPKF).

The chess champions said they were “disappointed” when they lost gold and had to settle for bronze at the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai but are “very happy” that they could reverse that setback in just two years. Vaishali said it was “Prag’s idea” to celebrate the victory of both men’s and women’s teams by holding the national, recreating football sensation Lionel Messi's iconic walk after clinching the 2022 FIFA world cup.

“I think it was Prag who told the players that let’s pose for a group picture with our national flag,” Vaishali said. On his part, Praggnanandhaa said he was very happy that both teams could clinch the gold medal and thought this was a good opportunity to celebrate “our success.”

The Chess Grandmaster also thanked the authorities of SDAT and Tamil Nadu government for continuing to support chess players. He also said Chess was getting popular in the state especially after the Olympiad was held in Mamallapuram near Chennai in July 2022.

“We are happy that we could make a mark this time. The Chennai Olympiad was a disappointment for all of us despite putting in maximum efforts. We just got bronze, but in the next Olympiad, we made it. We won by fighting against strong teams,” Praggnanandhaa said.

Gukesh said he was “particularly happy” there was “no bad moment” for the participating Indian teams at the Olympiad this time. “We worked hard and continued to work as a team. We were consistently motivated and that worked in our favour,” Gukesh added.

Chennai has had a long history of producing Chess Grandmasters. As many as 29 Grandmasters of the 83 in India are from Tamil Nadu.