World number two in Women and going great guns in her second innings, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy will lead the Indian women team for a maiden medal aspiration in the biennial event that is likely to see participation of around 180 countries.
Anand participated in the last Chess Olympiad at Batumi, Georgia and even though the Indian team remained in the medal hunt for a long time in the 11-round swiss event, we missed out on the medal finally.
This time renewed energy will be put on performance as the plans are to have now-retired former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia as the trainer for the men team for at least two camps.
The trainer for the women team is still being debated but the AICF will ensure that they also get the best of facilities.
Apart from Anand, Grandmasters P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi remain a certainty for the men team. It’s going to be a close race for the remaining two spots in the five-member team with B Adhiban having the best chance currently to hold the fourth spot. K Sasikiran, S P Sethuraman, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Aravindh Chithambaram are the remaining four in contention for a spot in the team.
Amongst the Women, Humpy and Harika qualify themselves while for the remaining three slots, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni and R Vaishali have a strong case as on date. However, the finally decision will be based upon how the perform in the coming months. According to rules the final decision on the composition can be taken only on May 1, 2020.
Speaking about the new development, AICF secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan said that this will be our best chance. “I think this could be our chance to show the world that we are indeed the new power in Chess, we have a string of young grandmasters waiting to be world class players in the years to come and at the top we have some of the finest players today”, he said adding "and we have to thank Microsense India for agreeing to support the training program with Mr Kramnik."
