44th Chess Olympiad 2022 preview

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/07/2022

The 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad is the biggest Olympiad in the history, less than 24 hours away now. It is also the biggest sporting spectacle to ever take place in India. A total of 350 teams, 1736 players are taking part from 189 countries across the world. The host nation India is going to have six teams and 30 players taking part, which is the highest ever for a single edition of this extravaganza. Reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen will play in the Olympiad for the first time since 2016. The legend who inspired the nation and beyond, Vishy Anand is the mentor for the Indian teams. Round 1 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

30 Indians will play in six teams

The final addition among the six Indian teams is in the Women's section. India 3 Women will comprise - IM Eesha Karavade, WIM Sahithi Varshini M, WGM Pratyusha Bodda, WGM Nandhidhaa P V and WIM Vishwa Vasnawala. The team will be captained by GM Dibyendu Barua.

All six Indian teams along with the sponsors and officials at Good Luck Team India event | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

44th Chess Olympiad 2022 Official logo | Photo: Official site

India 1 Open (L to R) - GM Vaibhav Suri, GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM S L Narayanan, GM Arjun Erigaisi, GM Krishnan Sasikiran, GM Sankalp Gupta and GM Srinath Narayanan | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

India 1 Women (L to R) - GM Swayams Mishra, IM Vaishali R, IM Bhakti Kulkarni, IM Tania Sachdev, GM Koneru Humpy, GM Shyam Sundar M and GM Abhijit Kunte | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

India 2 Open (L to R) - GM Stany G A, GM B Adhiban, GM Raunak Sadhwani, Bharat Singh Chauhan, GM Nihal Sarin, GM D Gukesh, GM Arjun Kalyan, GM R B Ramesh | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

India 2 Women (L to R) - GM Swapnil Dhopade, WGM Divya Deshmukh, IM Padmini Rout, WGM Vantika Agrawal, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, IM Soumya Swaminathan and GM Akash Ganesan | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

India 3 Open (L to R) - GM Abhimanyu Puranik, GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM Sethuraman S P, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GM Tejas Bakre | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

India 3 Women (L to R) - WGM Pratyusha Bodda, WGM Nandhidhaa P V, GM Dibyendu Barua, WIM Sahithi Varshini and WIM Vishwa Vasnawala | Photo: FIDE/Lennart Ootes

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar tweeted his best wishes for the Indian team

What is the special arrangement that is made for team India at the Chess Olympiad 2022 | Video: ChessBase India

Press Conference

L to R - Bharat Singh Chauhan, Chess Olympiad Tournament Director and AICF Hony. Secretary, Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, Dr. Sanjay Kapoor, FIDE President and GM Judit Polgar, Official Commentator and Greatest female chess player of all time | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Press Conference in progress | Photo: FIDE/Madelene Belinki

GM Srinath Narayanan answers a question of the audience | Photo: FIDE/Steve Bonhage

Captain GM Srinath Narayanan on India 2 being perceived as a bigger threat by the World Champion | Video: ChessBase India

Judit Polgar on attending her 12th Chess Olympiad | Video: ChessBase India

Carlsen never asked for a format change in the middle of a World Championship Cycle - Dvorkovich | Video: ChessBase India

Stats and facts

• Open teams - 188, Players - 937

• Women teams - 162, Players - 799

• Total teams - 350, Players - 1736

• Open - 233 GMs, 111 IMs, 3 WGMs and a WIM are taking part from 186 countries.

• Women - 15 GMs, 46 IMs, 51 GMs and 98 WIMs are taking part from 160 countries.

• Teams having 4 players and no reserves - Open: Comoros Islands, Laos and Nicaragua. Women: Ivory Coast, Cyprus, Fiji, Gabon, Guatemala, Indonesia, Laos, Nicaragua, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor-leste and Chinese Taipei.

• Both Open and Women's team top seeds - Magnus Carlsen and Koneru Humpy are yet to win a medal at Chess Olympiad event. This is also Carlsen's first Olympiad since 2016.

• 13 Women are playing in the Open section.

• Youngest participant of the event is Randa Seder of Palestine. She is just eight years old.

Opening Ceremony

Chess Olympiad 2022 Opening Ceremony | Video: ChessBase India

Schedule

Everyday round starts at 3 p.m. IST from 29th July to 8th August 2022. The final round on 9th August starts 10 a.m. IST. Rest day is on 4th August 2022.

Open teams list

No.	FED	Team	RtgAvg	Captain
1	USA	United States of America	2771	Donaldson, John
2	IND	India	2696	Narayanan, Srinath
3	NOR	Norway	2692	Haarr, Jon Kristian
4	ESP	Spain	2687	Magem Badals, Jordi
5	POL	Poland	2683	Bartel, Mateusz
6	AZE	Azerbaijan	2680	Abasov, Nijat
7	NED	Netherlands	2672	Smeets, Jan
8	UKR	Ukraine	2666	Sulypa, Oleksandr
9	GER	Germany	2664	Gustafsson, Jan
10	ENG	England	2662	Pein, Malcolm
11	IND	India 2	2649	Ramesh, R B
12	ARM	Armenia	2642	Pashikian, Arman
13	IRI	Iran	2636	Pourramezanali, Amirreza
14	UZB	Uzbekistan	2625	Sokolov, Ivan
15	FRA	France	2621	Maze, Sebastien
16	IND	India 3	2619	Bakre, Tejas
17	CRO	Croatia	2611	Kozul, Zdenko
18	CZE	Czech Republic	2608	Simacek, Pavel
19	HUN	Hungary	2607	Acs, Peter
20	ROU	Romania	2605	Miron, Lucian-Costin
21	TUR	Turkey	2602	Kanmazalp, Ogulcan
22	ISR	Israel	2598	Glaz, Ilana David
23	SRB	Serbia	2595	Perunovic, Miodrag
24	GEO	Georgia	2580	Sturua, Zurab
25	GRE	Greece	2575	Nikolaidis, Ioannis

Details

Women teams list

No.	FED	Team	RtgAvg	Captain
1	IND	India	2486	Kunte, Abhijit
2	UKR	Ukraine	2478	Brodsky, Michail
3	GEO	Georgia	2475	Jojua, Davit
4	POL	Poland	2423	Dziuba, Marcin
5	FRA	France	2400	Gozzoli, Yannick
6	AZE	Azerbaijan	2399	Mamedov, Nidjat
7	USA	United States of America	2390	Khachiyan, Melikset
8	GER	Germany	2383	Yakovich, Yuri
9	ARM	Armenia	2367	Andriasian, Zaven
10	KAZ	Kazakhstan	2365	Kotsur, Pavel
11	IND2	India 2	2351	Swapnil, S. Dhopade
12	HUN	Hungary	2342	Papp, Gabor
13	ESP	Spain	2327	Martinez Martin, David
14	CUB	Cuba	2324	Alvarez Pedraza, Aramis
15	BUL	Bulgaria	2319	Arnaudov, G. Petar
16	IND3	India 3	2318	Barua, Dibyendu
17	NED	Netherlands	2312	Bosch, Jeroen
18	SRB	Serbia	2312	Chelushkina, Irina
19	ISR	Israel	2287	Botvinnik, Ilia
20	ROU	Romania	2283	Szabo, Gergely-Andras-Gyula
21	ENG	England	2274	D'Costa, Lorin
22	SVK	Slovakia	2265	Stohl, Igor
23	CZE	Czech Republic	2260	Polak, Tomas
24	VIE	Vietnam	2259	Nguyen, Minh Thang
25	ITA	Italy	2251	Bellia, Fabrizio