India has been placed alongside France, Belarus and Azerbaijan among others in Pool B of the top division in the second-ever online FIDE Chess Olympiad that will start from the 8th of September and will end on the 15th of September 2021.
India were the joint tournament winners last year will be enlisted by teams namely France, Belarus and Azerbaijan, Shenzhen China, Moldova, Slovenia, Egypt, Sweden and Hungary in their pool. Two teams each from the four pools in the Top Division will qualify for the play-off spots in the Olympiad. Shenzhen China, Moldova, Slovenia and Sweden qualified for the Top Division from the Pool A of Division Two. A total of 15 teams from Division Two have joined the 25 other teams including top teams such as India, China and Russia in the Top Division.
The Indian team includes the legendary world champion Vishwanathan Anand and other esteemed Chess players like Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Adhiban Bhaskaran, Nihal Sarin and R Pragganandhaa. The women players on the team consist of seniors like Koneru Humpy, D Harika, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni and also promising juniors like R. Vaishali and B Savitha Shri.
The Indian team were the joint winners of the last year’s competition along with Russia. The All India Chess Federation has taken steps to ensure the best facilities for the players to practise for the Olympiad this year so that they can retain this trophy again and has booked a five-star hotel in Chennai where the team will play all their matches from.
