All eyes will be on young Indian chess players at the 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai. The competition began on Thursday. Top-seeded of the world including the US, Norway, Spain, and Poland are participating in the competition.
Ten Points
- India is hosting the 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai. 187 countries including the US are participating in the competition and it is a world record.
- The US team led by the World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana is leading with Elo 2771 rating followed by India (Elo 2696), Norway led by World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Elo 2692), Spain (Elo 2687), Poland (Elo 2683), and Azerbaijan (Elo 2680).
- India has 30 players divided into six teams participating in the Chess Olympiad. The top team includes Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Arjun Erigaisi, SL Narayanan and Krishnan Sasikiran.
- Arjun and Narayanan are making their debut in the international championship. Where Arjun has an excellent Elo score of 2700, Narayanan is a bankable player for the country.
- Harikrishna, Vidit, and Sasikiran are the most experienced players of team India. They have an excellent track record of winning matches.
- In the women’s competition, the Indian team leads with Elo of 2487 but it isn’t too ahead of nearest rivals Ukraine (Elo 2478) and Georgia (Elo 2475).
- Indian women’s team has Koneru Humpy, D Harika, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, and Bhakti Kulkarni as its star players.
- Team India 2 includes everything from youth to experience. It has Nihal Sarin, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, and Raunak Sadhwani as young players with 30-year-old B Adhiban as the oldest experienced player.
- The average Elo of Team India 2 is 2649 but their track record of defeating fancied opponents in the past six months places them as the top contender for the medal.
- The Chess Olympiad is scheduled from 28 July to 10 August.
Source:- https://bit.ly/3PLP72o