Promising Show by India

In the last edition in 2014, India returned with a HISTORIC FIRST BRONZE MEDAL in the open section. This year, India fell short of retaining the medal and finished fourth, after being seeded ninth. Among the ladies, the fifth seeded Indians justified their pre-event expectations.

- Rakesh Rao

Over a quarter of a century,Viswanathan Anand remains among the chess elite and stands out as India’s best brand ambassador for this cerebral sport.

Ironical as it may sound, twice in the last three years, Indian chess teams — without Anand —created a flutter in the Chess Olympiad. As a growing chess power, both among men and women, India is fast gaining the respect of the chess world.

The Chess Olympiad, held in every even-numbered year, is a congregation of five men and five ladies each from over 175 countries, in what is the equivalent of Olympics.

AS IT SHOULD BE, all the leading players turn out for their country and take pride in their performances. This year, in the Open section, eight out of the top-10 men were around. The only names missing from the list were Armenia’s Levon Aronian and our own Anand. Aronian, a regular in the Olympiad, had to miss out this time since the event was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Armenia did not participate owing to the discord with Azerbaijan.

Anand, who has never made secret of his reluctance to play in the Olympiad, stayed away, as expected. The Indian superstar maintains that he is not comfortable with the playing conditions of the Olympiad, in addition to the fact that the format is a “lottery.” As he once told Sportstar, “It is not about how well you play in the first 10 rounds, if you mess up the final three rounds, you will not be on the podium.”

In the last edition in 2014, India returned with a historic first bronze medal in the open section. This year, India fell short of retaining the medal and finished fourth, after being seeded ninth. Among the ladies, the fifth-seeded Indians justified their pre-event expectations.