All eyes on India ahead of 44th Chess Olympiad. Chess News – Times of India

Mamallapuram: Chess Olympiad The fever is at its peak with the Indian teams performing brilliantly in the 44th edition of the prestigious event starting on Thursday.
With powerhouses Russia and China missing, India will field three teams each in the Open and women’s categories respectively.
Though five-time world champion and legendary Viswanathan Anand has decided not to play and has taken on the role of mentor this time around, yet, the Indian teams are in a formidable look.
The Indian ‘A’ team, seeded second after the star-studded USA, is likely to be one of the main challengers for the top prize along with Norway, led by Carlsen and Azerbaijan.
The young India ‘B’ squad coached by RB Ramesh has been seeded 11th and can be counted among the dark horses.

The upcoming edition, which has attracted a record 188 teams in the open section and 162 teams in the women’s, will also feature six teams from India.
India. As hosts, two teams could be fielded and an additional team could be fielded in each section as the number of entries was odd.
The absence of both Russia and China undermines the region but provides an opportunity for other countries to rise to glory.
For example, the Americans claim a line-up that includes Fabio Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Sam Shankland and Linear Dominguez with an average ELO rating of 2771 and should be considered the most preferred based only on the Gulf. . (in average rating).
However, in a team event, especially in an Olympiad, in addition to the form of the players, teamwork is also important.

India, which won bronze in the 2014 Open event in Troms, Norway, won the gold medal in the 2020 Online Olympiad along with Russia and won the bronze in the 2021 edition. The upcoming edition offers Indians a huge opportunity to claim the yellow metal in the over-the-board variant.
While No. 2 seeded India ‘A’ will consider themselves in frame for a medal, ‘B’ teams include talented youngsters – D Gukesh and R Praganandan – along with Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and veteran B Adhiban. Ability to beat strong teams according to coach Ramesh.
Being a lengthy event, he feels the players need to find ways to keep themselves motivated through the 11 rounds and this will be crucial in the final analysis.
In fact, defending world champion Magnus Carlsen has also spoken a lot about the Indian players and felt that the teams could be in the race for a medal.
The India ‘A’ team includes veteran P Harikrishna and fast-rising Arjun Arigasi, Vidit Gujrathi, who was the captain when the country shared gold with Russia at the 2020 Online Olympiad, veteran K Sasikiran and SL Narayanan.
The 17th seeded ‘C’ team has a mix of experience and youth and some surprises can be expected with Surya Shekhar Ganguly at the forefront.
The India ‘A’ side are the top seeds in the women’s event and will be gunning for gold with experienced Koneru Humpy and D Harika in the ranks. Apart from the experienced duo, the rapid improvement in R Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni adds to the team’s strength.
The other two Indian teams can also surprise.
The challenge for India A could come from countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan, which are ranked second to fourth respectively.
Indian team
Open
A: Vidit S Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, Arjun Erigasi, SL Narayanan, K Sasikaran.
B: Nihal Sarin, D Gukesh, R Pragyanand, B Adhiban, Raunak Sadhwani.
C: Surya Shekhar Ganguly, SP Sethuraman, Abhijit Gupta, Karthikeyan Murali, Abhimanyu Puranik.
women
A: Koneru Humpy, D Harika, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni.
B: Vantika Agarwal, Soumya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini Raut, Divya Deshmukh.
C: Isha Karvade, Sahiti Varshini. Pratyusha Bodda, PV Nandidha, Vishwa Vasanawala.
factbox
what are they playing for
Winner in Open Section: Hamilton-Russell Cup
Winner in Women’s Category: Vera Menchik Cup
1st place in combined classification: Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy
number of teams
Open: 188
Female: 162
draft
all matches of chess The Olympiad will be played in the classical Swiss league format.
place
Four Points by Sheraton, Mamallapuram (located about 58 km from Chennai)