Indian chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand will mentor the Indian players for the upcoming Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou, China where the sport will make comeback after a break of 12 years.
The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is aiming for a rich medal haul from its players at the Asian Games, scheduled to be held from September 10-25.
The AICF said that eyeing the four gold medals at stake in the games, the five-time world chess champion, Vishwanath Anand had taken a different role and will now mentor the team. The first session between him and the players will start next Thursday.
The AICF is concentrating to improve India’s performance from the 2010 Guangzhou Games, where India had won two bronze medals.
It has started the preparation in advance by choosing 10 probable each for the men’s and women’s teams. They have been selected based on their international rating.
The men’s probable comprises of Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, Nihal Sarin, S L Narayanan, K Sasikiran, B Adhiban, Kartikeya Murali, Arjun Erigaisi, Abhijeet Gupta and Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
Whereas the women’s team probable consists of Koneru Humpy, D Harika, Vaishali R, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni, Vantika Agrawal, Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan, and Eesha Karavade. The selection committee comprising Abhijit Kunte, Dibeyandu Barua, and Dinesh Sharma will finalize the list of five players in April.
