File image of Tania Sachdev.© NDTV
India chess veteran Tania Sachdev urged state governments to come out and support players in different sports in order to maintain and develop a pipeline of young players. Sachdev, who was part of India's historic double gold campaign at 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 reminisced the victorious day and the pre-planned celebrations.
Hailing from Delhi, Sachdev mentioned that she had been the only chess representative for India from the capital for nearly 16 years, until the emergence of Vantika. She expressed the importance of state governments in maintaining a pipeline for the youth.
"There's a reason why we see so many Grandmasters from Tamil Nadu. Why does every girl want to play badminton? Because she's seen a PV Sindhu," said Sachdev, speaking at the NDTV World Summit.
"Unless the state governments recognize the effort of its own players, how are you going to inspire the youth of a profession seriously?" posed Sachdev.
At the 45th Chess Olympiad, both the men's and women's teams of India won gold. However, Sachdev, who's been a part of India's chess team at the Olympiad since 2008, had to wait 16 years to taste gold. Her teammate D Harika had to wait 20 years. Sachdev spoke about the road to gold as a lifetime journey.
"It is something that we worked towards not one or two years, but 16 years for me and even longer for her (Harika). Having got the job done, we all felt more emotional than we ever have. It went far beyond winning the gold, it was a lifetime journey for a lot 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.