The World Rapid Team Championship concluded on Friday, and after 12 rounds, Team MGD1 emerged as the sole leaders! Seeded 6th at the start of the tournament, the team dominated throughout, and ended each day on top of the leaderboard. Let’s dive into everything that went right for the team!
The star of the show was our recreational board player- Atharva P Tayade! An IIT Bombay graduate and a current IIM Calcutta student, Atharva scored 11 points in 12 games, clinching victories for the team in some of the most crucial rounds. His only loss came in the final round against Murat Omarov. Won smooth games, fought through tough positions and converted them into wins- he did it all!
Grandmaster Pranav V played on the fourth board. He scored an amazing 7.5/8, This included 4 wins on the final day of the event. One of his most resilient victories came in Round 11 against GM Tuan Minh Le. He kept fighting a worse position, and just one error from the opponent in the endgame was enough for him to finally turn around the game! Pranav will receive the individual board gold medal for his performance on board 5.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi was the team’s top board. He started with 2 wins and 1 loss on the first day. However, second day turned out to be a tough one, with only a score of 0.5/4. This included a draw against GM Alireza Firouzja in round 6, and losses against GMs Vishwanathan Anand, Vincent Keymer and Volodar Murzin. But the comeback on day 3 was stronger! Arjun scored crucial wins against GMs Richard Rapport, Jose Martinez and Luke Mcshane, and a draw against compatriot Nihal Sarin.
Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna became the solid pillar of the team. He scored some very strong draws, one of the best being in round 6 against GM Hikaru Nakamura. Grandmaster Leon Mendonca is one of the two undefeated player of the team. He played on boards 3 and 4, and scored 5.5 points in 8 rounds, and will take home the individual silver medal on board 4. Grandmaster David Anton Guijarro played all 12 rounds, and scored 6.5 points. This included an amazing victory over GM Jan Krzysztof Duda. IM Stavroula Tsolakidou also scored 5.5 points in 12 rounds, including draws against GM Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk, IM Dinara Wagner and many more.
Captain Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan has been leading our team since the tournament’s first edition. He’s the binding force, the strategist of the team. He might not be playing on the board, but he’s always there at the board, looking over the positions, for a high five after every win, for a motivating ‘Good Game’ after every upset. And if you ever ask him where did he find our recreational player Atharva, he’ll reply with a smile, “On Chess.com”!
The results may look like some of the players did not have their best days, but we still went on to win the entire event, scoring 10 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. That is a perfect depiction of how our players played as a unit. Each of them stepped up to the occasion to led the team to victory, each of them showed us what playing as a team meant!
This team taught us resilience, and we are all very proud of this achievement! Hereby presenting, TEAM MGD1- FIDE WORLD RAPID TEAM CHAMPION 2025
