Nothing beats the joy of winning a medal: Harika Dronavalli

An Indian women’s chess team has brought back a glorious first for the country — India’s first ever silver medal. The team, which competed in the prestigious FIDE World Women’s Team Championship at Sitges, Spain, recently, was led by Hyderabad’s Harika Dronavalli and included Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, Mary Ann Gomes and Bhakti Kulkarni. The Indian team had lost to Russia in the summit clash of the event, considered the Olympiad of team events in chess.

And Harika, who reached Hyderabad on Tuesday morning, emphasises that the silver medal has been a great start to the team especially since the pandemic. “It was an emotional moment to achieve one of my long-awaited dreams of winning a team medal in the Olympiad of team events in chess,” says the Grandmaster.

“This is one of the most memorable wins. It’s a fantastic team effort. This win will further encourage youngsters to take up chess, which will also give a great boost to the sport,” says Harika, who’s a three-time bronze-medal winner in the Women’s World Chess Championships.

The Indian contingent after winning the silver medal in Spain

Awaiting a proper celebration

Harika was the only woman in the tournament to play all eleven games. “So naturally I am tired,” she adds with a hard-to-hide satisfied smile. “All of us went to the tournament thinking we’d give our best but nothing beats the joy of winning a medal.” Despite the enormity of the historic win, the team has not had much time to celebrate it as they had to take part in the closing ceremony. “We were exhausted from all the pressure. But later that night we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner,” she adds.

Harika Dronavalli at the podium finish

Invaluable lessons from the championship

Harika, who was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2019, states that the team was slightly nervous before the start of the championship, which is a 45 minutes on-board chess format.

“We were also worried that we may have lost form as we were all playing after a long time. But once it started, things began coming to us naturally,” explains the 30 year-old.

But Harika believes that things actually got easier as the team’s members hadn’t met for a long time thanks to the pandemic. “We realised the value of companionship, traveling and being part of such a big championship. After the pandemic, I’ve realised that I’ve begun enjoying the smallest things.

A jubilant India team after winning the silver medal

Earlier, I took them for granted,” she reveals. “For instance, traveling to other countries wasn’t a big deal earlier but now I feel lucky to be able to get there and be part of the mix. In fact, I feel grateful to be a part of the team, let alone winning.”

A medal for all

And in a bid to use time productively during the pandemic Harika had also learned the Russian language. “Most of the international chess players are from Russia, so I thought it’ll be nice to know and understand them,” Harika says.