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Chess Olympiad 2018, Viswanathan Anand leads the strongest team, new rules launched

Chess Olympiad 2018, Viswanathan Anand leads the strongest team, new rules launched

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand claimed that for the 2018 Chess Olympiad the Indian team’s preparations are in full swing. The ongoing opening camp in New Delhi isn’t just about final-tuning the game but also about building a friendly atmosphere for the players who are part of it. In this camp players are enjoying the sessions of table tennis, swimming to discussing chess. Anand spoke that this camp is built to create a strong team bonding. Team captain RB Ramesh said,” Everyone in the group enjoys playing table tennis, and we have also ensured that ample time is given to chess as well,”.

The 2018 Chess Olympiad will be held in Batumi in Georgia on September 2018. The five-member Indian men’s team at the Olympiad will be led by five-time World Champion and the World No.10 Grand Master (GM) Viswanathan Anand (ELO rating of 2,776). The other members who will join the Vishu’s army are, World No.26 GM P. Harikrishna (ELO 2,731) and World No.34 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (ELO 2,723). The fourth and fifth members of the team would be selected from World No.77 GM K. Sasikiran (ELO 2,671), GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (ELO 2,657), AGM B. Adhiban (ELO 2,650) and GM S.P. Sethuraman (ELO 2,649) based on their rating at the cut-off date. So, the average rating of the Indian team will be around 2,700.

AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan said,”this is one of the strongest team in the tournament. Although, The Indian men’s Olympiad team won the bronze medal in 2014 did not get any financial incentives either from the central or the state governments. AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan also spoke about the new rules, which were made by World Chess Association,” Indian chess players have grown stronger now. The old rule has appeared in creating weak links in the team which we have decided to rectify. Now, these rules would not be more effective for New players as well as for those also, whose ranking is below than nominal rating.

About the author

Abhishek Lohia

Abhishek Lohia was a Sports and Political Writer working for Newsfolo and is no longer associated with the organization.

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