India's Olympiad chess team creates history

[The Dark Horse]

PUNE: Abhijit Kunte had played six successive blacks for 4/7 when Indian men's team finished best-ever sixth at the 2004 Calvia chess Olympiad. When the women fared two better than men on Sunday in the Istanbul edition, the city's only grandmaster didn't play a single game. But his strategy to play slightly higher-rated Tania Sachdev on the third board paid rich dividends. Tania scored heavily with nine points in 11 rounds for the individual bronze on the third board as sixth seeds India finished fourth. Kunte was the coach and non-playing captain of the women's team in Turkey. His initiative to play higher-rated Delhi International Master Tania behind Eesha Karavade was pivotal. Tania's Elo rating before the meet was 2379 and Eesha's 2371. Kunte said, "Eesha was playing good and solid in previous tournaments. So the idea was having Tania, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan on the last two boards to score (wins) and top-two boards to play solid." It made sense. But in an ego game compounded by the rigidity of Indian officials, it's not easy to shuffle players. But Kunte partly managed that because of his own stature as an Olympiad player - something which coaches who are handed such tours as gifts lack. India's top player K Humpy's pullout from the team was a blow. Kunte had said: "Humpy's absence means it won't be realistic to look for a medal. We will try and finish the best we can." However, Humpy's absence had ingredients of a blessing in disguise. For, she is an introvert and a cut above the other players which may not have helped creating an atmosphere of equality in the team. With three of five players - GM D Harika, WGM Eesha and WGM Soumya - from Pune-based Lakshya group (Kunte is associated with it), a lack of proximity was not an issue. Kunte said, "Harika was the leading player in the team. So I had to made her feel that she is not responsible for the performance of the team but only for her own." Shuffling players was important because the Eesha-Tania combo, rather than the Tania-Eesha sequence, provided a greater chance of securing one point (on those two boards) against stronger or equal teams and a greater chance of scoring 1.5 points (on those two boards) against weaker teams. For, Eesha is more comfortable with higher board pressure for half a point rather than placing the onus on winning. And Tania is a more dynamic player for eking out wins from complicated on-board situations and handling expectations. When both of them played eight rounds together in Turkey, India scored 2/2 twice, 1.5/2 twice, 1/2 twice and 0.5/2 and 0/2 once each. The Indian men's team, seeded 13th, lost just one match but finished 35th behind Bangladesh. A spate of draws against weaker teams didn't help. Though former World junior champion P. Harikrishna defeated big names like Alexander Beliavsky and Gata Kamsky in successive games, he lost his luster after that. Abhijeet Gupta's sliver medal on the fourth board was the only relief in an insipid performance overall. The women had 21 board wins, 14 board draws and nine board defeats (+12). The Men came up with 15 wins in 44 games. They had 21 board draws and eight defeats (+7). The men, captained by GM RB Ramesh are losing rating points on the top three boards after the campaign but two Indian women are set to gain in Elo from the top three boards. Shuffling of players is not a usual practice in India's Olympiad history. The Indian women did that last in Dresden 2008, the first time after 1998. Nisha Mohota and Swati Ghate didn't take boards according to pure rating. Though Nisha scored 1/4 on the higher board, Swati scored 6.5/11 and Mary Ann Gomes walked away with the silver medal on the reserve board with 6/8.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/chess/Indias-Olympiad-chess-team-creates-history/articleshow/16337763.cms Womens' team ended up at 4th which is highly commendable:two_thumbs_up:

[The Dark Horse]

Player of the tourney for India - Tania Sachdev

[Mariyam]

I've beaten Anand at chess. True story. What happened to the ICF chess league? B555 used to organize it back in the day. Twas fun. Maybe if we have enough numbers, we could have another chess league.

[kanpur3214]

The Indian men's team, seeded 13th, lost just one match but finished 35th behind Bangladesh. A spate of draws against weaker teams didn't help. Though former World junior champion P. Harikrishna defeated big names like Alexander Beliavsky and Gata Kamsky in successive games, he lost his luster after that. Abhijeet Gupta's sliver medal on the fourth board was the only relief in an insipid performance overall. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/chess/Indias-Olympiad-chess-team-creates-history/articleshow/16337763.cms

Anand should have played then India would have been in the Top 10. Surprised Bangladesh finished ahead of India at No. 33 (though they seem to have 5 GMs). Pakistan and Sri Lanka finished at 103rd and 104th position respectively. Same South Asian nations and India have scores of GMs while Pakistan and Sri Lanka have none. Different genes or culture? http://results.chessolympiadistanbul.com/