The video captures a post‑match interview with the captain of the Indian chess team (Srinath) after the team secured the silver medal at the 2026 Chess Olympiad. The conversation weaves through several themes: the team’s health crisis, with several players (Prag, Mukesh, Vidit) suffering from a viral infection; strategic lineup choices, notably placing prodigy Gukesh on board 4 to reduce pressure and the timing of Nihal’s participation and rest; the pivotal match against Uzbekistan that shifted momentum; the captain’s mental coping strategy of reading a book during games; logistical frustrations such as the distance to the refreshment area and the captain’s role in delivering snacks; overall assessment of the team’s performance given a dip in form compared to previous years; and a chaotic fan‑driven photo‑request segment that illustrates media pressure. The interview blends Hindi, English, and occasional other language snippets, reflecting the multilingual environment of the event. The captain expresses a mix of pride, relief, and measured optimism, acknowledging both the team’s resilience and the deserved victory of Uzbekistan.
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निहाल, ओके ओके। यहाँ निंदा लेती था। बिना लादे निंदा ले अब लादो निहाल ने काली गाने की वोटर दिखाने, वोटर दिखाने। You have come all the way from Kerala to meet Nihal or like? Yeah, yeah. I am from Kerala player. Any play? Oh yeah. Nihal. He played many games. What's his name? Test player. Test player. Any time Kerala represent the national team? Oh wow. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Sorry. Sorry. But original. Sorry. I don't know. Actually original one is there. But okay. I'll see it myself. That is the whole. This hotel? A menu. Menu. Sorry. No, no, no. I'm sick. Yeah, I'm sick. Yeah, I'm sorry. All right. Excuse me. One photo, please, please. Why? What? Wait a minute. I but no, no, my camera, man. Just photo, just photo. Can we take one photo? Only one photo. She also champion Uzbekistan. In future we'll play with your sister. Good luck. Come on, let's go guys, let's go, let's go! More photo, more photo! By the way, uh, we have, uh, Vivek Pai who has sent us some notes. He says that on average India leads by about 19 SB points. Germany only gets past India if nearly every result goes against India at once. The worst case, India is behind just by 2 points. So yeah, I think in general the medals could very well be because Arjun is winning. By the way, oh, by the way, resigns. Oh, resignation. Arjun won and there Mukesh, but he's celebrating because he knows a 2-2 is enough. Oh, that was a gacha moment. That's good. Amina, Amina, you get one photo please. Aminah, Aminah, Aminah. Thank you. Good. Okay, one picture, please. Thank you. Okay, very nice, very nice. Okay, one picture. Okay, please. Okay, sir. Okay, sir. Apolo, go away. Galatians. One. Huh? Yours. You know what's in it? Yours. You you know chili with pizza? Hey, my abunatulamiwa. Please, please. Please, please catch. Yes, please, please catch. Ah, böyle böyle böyle abi böyle güzel. Çok iyi kampa da. Abi bu ziyareti çok iyi kampa da. Abi bu ne kazandı? Hani abun yanına olsa? Ya kereli pay kitkızı ver atalım. Please, please, please catch. Okay, जो पे कम है, one photo. Please, please. Mukesh, I can have one photo. Sure, sir. Come on, come on. It's both, it's both. Mukesh, one word for Arjun. One word for Arjun today. Genius. I think it's one. Okay, okay. It's better. Yeah, yeah. Ah ha, तो सर, इंटरेस्टिंग कुछ है। बुकेश। अकरास्मे? बुकेश। बुकेश वन फोटो। What was it? One photo. Absolutely. बीच ये कौन सा भी? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच ओवर क्या? बीच Where you took a— you voiced out the issues that the Indian team faced throughout the tournament, and then things got better. How was your experience in total? Uh, it was a very challenging, very difficult tournament, especially since we got used to winning everything in Budapest. So, uh, a difficult, uh, change. This tournament was a lot more challenging for us. we didn't come with, you know, the peak in form that we had in 2023 and '24 period. So yeah, it was a lot more challenging. And I think around round 8, a lot of our players also started having some kind of a viral infection going around. So at the end, I think quite a few players were sick. Wow. Not just from India, but quite a few players. Yeah, from our team, Prag and Mukesh were sick. Okay. And Vidit had some kind of an icky throat. I've also been unwell the last 3 days, and it was the same with the women's team as well. Is it something with the food or the weather? The cold temperature in the night and they're very hot in the afternoon? Absolutely no idea. It can be anything, but it seems like some kind of a viral infection. Okay, you mentioned that yes, this team did not come with the form of 2023-2024. There were a lot of questions asked about the team changes, about the lineups, with Gokesh bowled 4, then Nihal getting the spot and all. So how difficult was the decisions and how did you mentally prepare yourself for them? So I think Gokesh's form was one of the biggest challenges coming into the Olympiad. That was the biggest question. How worried we were about Gukesh's form. And he hasn't had, I think, a tournament like this in a long time where he gained some rating. Yeah. But yeah, that was, I think, one of the first pieces we put into place. Gukesh himself wanted to play on board 4, and we also wanted to give him the kind of opposition where he's not under the most pressure. So that's that he can have some leeway. The lower the board you are, the more there is for a margin of error. The first board is of course the most intense in terms of pressure, and we saw Ding go through something similar in 2024, and the first board didn't work the best for him, and China didn't even make a medal in 2024. So I thought that was the best thing for Gukesh, being on 4th And on that front, I think it worked wonderfully well. Gukesh at the beginning on day 1, and Gukesh now is a completely— is in a completely different mood. And around round 3, when he won this game against Sabino, against Italy, I think that was when things started changing and things started shifting in terms of, you know, Gukesh being in a better mood. And from then on, he picked things up wonderfully. So it's, it's really nice that Gukesh has had this wonderful tournament before his match. I think barring today's date, I think he has 8.5 out of 10. I think there's nothing more we can expect from him, right? He just, like, whatever role was given to him, he just did his best. Yeah, absolutely. And the quality of games were also excellent for the most part, barring today and a bit of a shaky game against Germany. But otherwise He played really well. He created many chances and he converted most of them. And Srinath, one of the biggest challenges throughout the tournament or the talking points was that when to play Nihal and when to like rest Nihal because he had this couple of tough games. But then yesterday he came back with a nice win. How was this period for you as a captain? Because okay, you and Nihal of course know each other from very, very long back. How was it like helping him and how was the process like? It was definitely a difficult period because out of all things, you really don't want to see your player go through so much pain and suffering. I experienced the same emotion when I saw Gokesh struggling in Chennai a couple of months ago in July. And for Nihal, it was the same thing. You see, he has so much potential, so much talent, and so much strength also. He has, I think, had one of the best results in the last one year amongst the players in the Indian team. And To see him go through that was a very difficult and challenging period. But I think it happens in every player's career. You have to go through these things. When you go to play, you either win or lose. And when you lose, it's a very unpleasant pain. It's like, you know, you go into a boxing ring, you get punched, and you have to face it. So, yeah. I think everyone has to go through it and it's all part of the journey. And now that the results are of course still waiting to come, silver, bronze, whatever we get, if you had to evaluate the overall performance, are you happy with how the team played? Yeah, overall I'm happy with how the team played and the result we end up with. Like I said, we didn't come with the best of form. Prague was of course having an amazing run. But if you look at how the players played collectively in the last one year in important tournaments like the World Cup or Grand Swiss, we weren't in the best of form. Probably in terms of strength, we are maybe the strongest or one of the strongest teams out there. But in terms of the shape that we came into this tournament, I think this was Pretty decent result, and I would say pretty much what we deserved. And a few words maybe for the champions for Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan were amazing. I think it was fantastic to watch even as a competitor. I think thoroughly deserved winners. Although the one match against us, if I felt in that particular matchup India. वह तो बेटर टीम। वी वर स्लाइटली बेटर ऑन ऑलमोस्ट ऑल द बोर्ड्स। आई मीन नॉट स्लाइटली बेटर ऑब्जेक्टिवली, बिकॉज़ द अदर बोर्ड्स वर फेयरली इक्वल एंड इट इंडेड इन अ ड्रॉ। आई मीन अर्जुन हैड अ प्रिटी बिग एडवांटेज विच द कंप्यूटर शोड, बट फॉर ह्यूमंस इट वाज रियली नॉट क was playing much better than Yakubayev on that day, and he had the better position, and he had him by the throat. But unfortunately, that went against us, and I think that changed the momentum of the tournament. It gave the Uzbeks a lot of confidence because at some level I felt they also understood that we were definitely their strongest competitors and the one team that could challenge them. Once we were past their It was much smoother path for them, and for us also it was playing catch-up. So I think that was the critical moment, and a bit unfortunate that it went against us. But also I think credit to Uzbekistan; they created so much pressure in all the games, and beat some super strong teams like Hungary 4-0, Armenia 3.5, very solid teams. And also credit to them that they kept. Kept fighting against us. They were resourceful and took the chance when it came. Just one question, a bit on the fun side. Today I saw you reading this book. What is this book? Can you tell us? I just borrowed it from Vidit because I was getting so incredibly stressed through some of the games that I wanted to have some kind of distraction during the game. So I had this one book that I carried, but I had finished it already, so I just borrowed it to, you know, keep myself occupied during some of the most critical moments so that my heart is not pumping whether someone will find the win or not, or whether someone will defend or not. A curious question in this matter, like I see many coaches, many captains carry a book. You also, I can ask you, does it divert your mind anyway? Because I think as a chess player, as a captain of the team, your mind I think is mostly on the position on the board and What you are reading is just a subconscious thing. Can you even concentrate on the book or is it always on the phone? I can't concentrate on the book, but it does help take the mind away. So my attention is not— I'm not reading with the kind of attention that I would read when I'm more relaxed or, you know, I'm completely dissociated. But on the other hand, yes, it does help take your mind away a little bit. So especially between the 3rd and 4th hour, or, you know, if someone has a bad position, it's, it's a nice escape. And also, I wanted to point out something, that every day we used to see you take 5 or 7 bottles, some banana from some other direction and bring to the table. What was the situation? Was it— was the location of the top tables very far from the place where players can get it from? Yeah, the refreshment area was a bit far. Because you had to, you know, take a detour around the spectator area. Like, it's right opposite, but since the in-between there's a spectator area, okay, you have to take a bit of a lengthy walk. So it would cost around 1.5 or 2 minutes. Uh, of course, still, it's not a big deal. Players can still do it. But, uh, the arrangement was that I would, you know, bring all these snacks and keep it near my chair, and it's much easier if they can You know, take it from there. And also, after 40 moves, to have some kind of refreshment, um, it, uh, it's useful if someone just, uh, brings it to you. So yeah, that was great to see. So, you know, I think it has been a very stressful tournament, and also we would wait for the result to see how we ended up with. But great effort to you and the team. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.
