Chess Olympiad 2022: Why India may sweep medals at the Chennai edition

The last time chess made national headlines, the year was 2013. Almost a decade since, marquee chess returns by means of an Olympiad which will run between twenty-eight July-10 August — with delegates from over 180 countries descending in Mamallapuram, just outside Chennai city in the southern part of Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

India has gained a medal only one time in the biennial team competition – the bronze in 2014. Then seeded nineteenth, they were surprise podium finishers.

This time, India goes in as serious contenders : seeded second, directly behind the US – a testament to the state’s growing pool associated with strong, young grandmasters.

The Indian native teams are mentored by five-time globe champion Viswanathan Anand, led by a couple of successful coaches and comprising some of the world’s most exciting skill.

They will find themselves at the front and centre of attention at home.

An overall total of 30 Indian players across 6 teams (three every in the Open and the females sections) will symbolize the country at the occasion.

They’ve been put together within team training sessions over the past few weeks. Some have already been away, playing tournaments, and are still fighting aircraft lag. The excitement and pressure of the major home competition is perhaps yet to kick in.

The first Open up team carries a stable line-up in Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, K Sasikiran, SL Narayanan and Arjun Erigaisi, but it’s the “B” team that threads together a far more interesting bunch.

Seeded 11th, is actually stacked with India’s brightest teen grandmasters – R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and the 2014 medal edition warhorse, N Adhiban.

“It’s seldom that we have a really solid “B” team which could very well win all of us a medal, ” says Srinath Narayanan, coach of the second-seeded Indian side.

“If we believe there aren’t likely to be any last-minute health scares, wish in with an excellent opportunity, ” he says. “The full extent of expectations is yet to hit the players. It can only be on the finish that stress will set in. ”

Opening plus closing ceremonies have a day each in order to themselves and matches will run from 29 July-9 August. The matches will be played over 11 rounds with a rest day in between and the teams will be made up of four players each and there will one in reserve.

The Indian women’s team, featuring two from the strongest players — Koneru Humpy and also a heavily-pregnant Harika Dronavalli – is seeded first and is expected to chase a podium finish. It also includes Tania Sachdev, L Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni.

India finished among the medals in the first two versions of the Online Olympiad which was played with quicker time controls over the past two pandemic-marred years. It can’t, nevertheless , be compared to the classical chess Olympiad that takes place over the plank every two years and can soon be underway in Chennai.

Typically, a host nation has a couple of years to organize for an event of such magnitude. India, stepping in since last-minute hosts in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, has had all of four months.

The Tamil Nadu state government was quick with its $10m (£8. 3m) surety bid, and the All India Chess Federation (AICF) has been pulling all-nighters to host more than 1, 700 gamers for the 10-day event.

To test operate the venue and its particular electronic chess boards, an open tournament has been played on Weekend with around 1, 400 domestic participants.

Teams from around the world have been trickling to the southern Indian locale to this edition’s mascot Thambi (little brother in Tamil) — an ubiquitous veshti-sattai (dhoti-shirt) clad dark night – greeting them at the airport plus holding their gaze from billboards

Powerhouses Russia and Cina will be sitting this particular Olympiad out yet almost all other best nations are heading with their best rosters.

Among them is certainly world number one, Magnus Carlsen of Norway. He’s coming fresh off his huge announcement of strolling away from next year’s World Championship after five consecutive game titles.

In addition, for Carlsen, Chennai was where it began – the venue of his first World Championship win against protecting champion Anand, in 2013.

It had been also the go with that stirred the imagination of a generation of young Indian chess players. Some of the country’s most promising grandmasters today were then seven or even eight-year-old boys that hung out wide-eyed at the five-star resort venue of the match up.

The lobby from the Hyatt Regency hotel during that match wore the look of a mentally stimulating games fair, with boards spread out over flooring and laps and kids hunched over them or occupied taking a crack in puzzles.

Among them were Praggnanandhaa plus Nihal. The latter won the national under-nine championship that happened in Chennai round the same time. The particular impact of being found in the vicinity of the major competition in a impressionable age, watching a 20-something Carlsen take over as chess’ new world champion, may have run deep.

Intended for Grandmaster Srinath, it was the 1995 Planet Championship match among Garry Kasparov plus Anand that turned out to be life altering. “My father watched that match in the news and fell deeply in love with chess. It was when he decided which he wanted me to try out the sport, ” he says. “I was 12 months old then. inch

For this Olympiad, held in India for the first time, organisers are already running a publicity blitzkrieg. One of Chennai’s many iconic structures, the particular Napier bridge, today wears the chequered look of a chess board. Thambi could be spotted on dairy packets and social networking is awash with the event’s hashtags.

Since the pandemic struck, chess has transformed into a sport that commands an enormous online following across YouTube and Twitch streams. The manner of story-telling has branched out lately, switching more conversational and less uptight to draw in new flocks of followers. This Olympiad stands to reap its payouts.

Nine years since India hosted the planet Championship, its results now wearing thin, a refresher of the major event can be timely.

For the home team, this campaign could well end in a historic complete. Regardless, a generation of young informal sports fans bred on cricket and international football might suddenly find mentally stimulating games ambushing their social media marketing feeds over the in a few days and a half.

It may just be a good sufficient reason for them to get to know their country’s best chess players by name.