Budapest, Sep 10: The top-seeded Indian women’s team, spearheaded by D Harika and R Vaishali, would be a strong podium contender thanks partly to a depleted field, while the D Gukesh-led men’s outfit will also fancy its chances in the 45th Chess Olympiad starts here on Wednesday.
Koneru Humpy’s non-participation in the event has not hampered the team’s chances much as Vaishali has jumped significantly in rankings and is a force to reckon with in the women’s circle.
Without Humpy, it will be Grandmaster D Harika on the top board, followed by Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal who will serve as the mainstay. Tania Sachdev is in the side as the reserved player and is likely to have her share of games.
China has fielded a hugely depleted team. A look at the September rating list issued by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, confirms that the top four women players on the list are all from China and yet not one of them is part of the contingent here.
With Russia unable to participate for the second consecutive time in the biennial event due to sporting sanctions and Ukraine also not able to gather their best team together, all eyes will be on the Indian women’s team that has a good mix of youth and experience.
Georgia is seeded a close second behind the Indian ladies. Poland is the third seed of the event ahead of China and Ukraine.
In the open section, it looks a closer fight as United States starts as the top favourite even though more than half of their players are migrants in recent years.
Fabiano Caruana will be donning the top board for the favourite team that is surely going to miss the services of Hikaru Nakamura. (PTI)
