By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, Jul 25 (IANS): In terms of the rating strength, probability of numbers and the absence of a couple of strong teams, India should figure in the Chess Olympiad medal tally and board prize list this year, unless something drastically goes wrong.
A total of 30 Indian players (men and women) in six teams (3 open and 3 women) will be vying to bring honours to the country.
The 44th Chess Olympiad will commence later this month at the Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort and Convention Centre on July 29.
In the Open category, where 188 teams are contending, the three Indian teams are seeded second, 11th and 17th. The top-seeded team is the one from the United States.
The second-seeded India-1 team comprises Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2,714), P. Harikrishna (2,720), Arjun Erigaisi (2,689), S.L. Narayanan (2,659) and Sasikiran Krishnan (2,638).
The India-2 consists of Nihil Sarin (2,651), D. Gukesh (2,684), B. Adhiban (2,598), R. Praggnanandhaa (2,648) and Raunak Sadhwani (2,611).
Interestingly in the world juniors, Arjun, Gukesh and Sarin are ranked second, sixth and 10th respectively.
The India-3 team members are Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2,608), S.P. Sethuraman (2,623), Abhijeet Gupta (2,627), Karthikeyan Murali (2,613) and Abhimanyu Puranik (2,612).
The top two teams in the world -- Russia and China-- are not participating in the Olympiad this time in the Open and Women sections, giving India a big edge.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has banned the Russian and Belarus national teams from participating in its tournaments owing to the Russian military action in Ukraine.
The reason for China not playing is not known.
Given the situation, many feel that the presence of former world champion Viswanathan Anand in the Indian team would have made a huge difference in the competition.
Anand is contesting for the post of deputy president, FIDE as part of incumbent FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich team.
"Anand fighting the FIDE elections seems to be a recent decision. There was no information about his non-participation when the Olympiad was scheduled to be held in Moscow earlier," a couple of senior chess players told IANS.
"Though he is contesting in the FIDE elections, he could have played in the Olympiad as Anand has not involved himself in the chess administration earlier -- national or international -- and election campaigning could have been carried out by Dvorkovich and his team," they felt.
Be that as it may, India has been playing in the Chess Olympiad since Moscow 1956. In the 2014 Chess Olympiad held at Tromso in Norway, the country won a bronze medal in the Open category despite the absence of the country's two top ranked players, Anand and P. Harikrishna.
A total of 15 Indian women spread out in three teams will be playing for the country in their category, comprising 162 teams.
In the women's section, India-1 team is the top seed with team's average Elo rating of 2,486, while India-2 team is seeded 11th (average rating 2,351) and India-3 team is seeded 16th (average rating 2,318).
The members of India-1 women's team are Koneru Humpy (2,586), D. Harika (2,517), R. Vaishali (2,442), Tania Sachdev (2,399) and Bhakti Kulkarni (2,373).
The members of India-2 are Vantika Agrawal (2,371), Soumya Swaminathan (2,335), Mary Ann Gomes (2,324), Padmini Rout (2,374) and Divya Deshmukh (2,319).
India-3 team comprises of Eesha Karavade (2,339), Sahithi Varshini M (2,312), Pratyusha Bodda (2,310), Nandhidhaa P V (2,312) and Vishwa Vasnawala (2,305).