Back-to-back double podiums at the Chess Olympiad. That is what India just delivered — and Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra reached for the periodic table to explain exactly why it matters.

Posting on Sunday, 27 September 2026, Mahindra celebrated the Indian Open team's silver medal and the Indian Women's team's bronze medal at the latest Chess Olympiad, drawing a pointed chemical metaphor: silver is a noble metal in its own right, while bronze is an alloy — elements brought together to forge something new. 'Honestly, what a fitting metaphor for how our teams played,' he wrote.

From Budapest gold to another double podium

The backdrop makes the achievement sharper. At the 2024 Chess Olympiad, India swept both the Open and Women's sections for gold — a historic double that announced the country's arrival at the very summit of team chess. Backing that up with two more podium finishes at this edition is not a repeat; it is confirmation. Consistency at this level, across two consecutive Olympiads, is the harder thing to do.

Mahindra underlined exactly that: 'Backing up a double-gold performance at the last Olympiad with another double podium at this edition shows real depth.' Depth, not a peak. A system, not a moment.

Why India keeps producing world-class chess talent

The results track a structural shift inside Indian chess. The country has steadily expanded its domestic tournament circuit, deepened coaching infrastructure, and produced a wave of grandmasters and international masters who compete year-round at the highest level. The pipeline did not arrive overnight — it was built over decades, accelerated by the inspiring example of former world champion Viswanathan Anand and, more recently, by a cluster of young grandmasters breaking into the global top ranks.

That broader pattern — successive Olympiad podiums rather than isolated peaks — is precisely what Mahindra flagged as the real story. 'It's proof that India's chess ecosystem is strongly consistent and just keeps producing world-class talent year after year.'

A noble metal and an alloy — the metaphor that lands

The chemical framing is more than wordplay. Silver, unreactive and luminous, stands alone. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is created through combination. Two different teams, two different journeys to the podium — one through individual brilliance held together, the other through collective fusion. The Open team earned silver; the Women's team forged bronze. Both kept India on the medal rostrum of the sport's biggest team event. That, Mahindra concluded, is what keeping a nation 'at the top' looks like.