India is heading as one of the favorites for the gold of the Chess Olympiad 2024. Captained by Srinath Narayanan and Abhijit Kunte, Indian teams boast a strong bid both in the open and women sections.
Throwback: Narayanan keeps Asian Junior title
The open team of India is second seeded according to the July rating list, right behind USA. But with players from both teams still participating in events, that can change. As expected, what was known as India 2 has now become the top team of the country. Board 1 is for the highest rated Indian player Arjun Erigaisi. Right next to him will be no other than the World Championship 2024 challenger Gukesh D. Another youngster is on board 3 , Praggnanandhaa, and the team is completed by Vidit and Pentala Harikrishna.
The Indian women team placed 3rd in the 2022 Chess Olympiad , edging USA and Kazakhstan on a dramatic tiebreak for the medal. Harika Dronavalli will take board 1 for India. Her teammates from 2022 Vaishali R (who recently competed in the Tbilisi Grand Prix) and Tania Sachdev (who now plays in Sants Open 2024 will also accompany her. The new faces on the team are Divya Deshmukh and Agrawal Vantika.
More Indian participants at the Olympiad
Our IANS colleague Venkatachari Jagannathan pointed out today that the two teams are not the only Indians participating at the Olympiad. Priyadharshan Kannappan from Chennai is coach of two teams at the same time, Erithrea and Mauritius. The other Indian chess masters who are training other country’s players for the Olympiad are GM Ankit R Rajpara, GM Anurag Mahamal, and IM Vishal Sareen.
