Is Australia sending a Team/s to the Chess Olympiad in July 2022?
Can anyone help with the following minor details?
- Are we sending Teams to the Olympiad? No one seems to know, or care!?
- What are the names of the Teams – if we are sending Teams.
- What are the names of the players in the Teams – if we are sending Teams.
- Who were the selectors of the Teams – if we are sending Teams.
- What were the results of the warm-up matches played online with other countries?
- What is the name of the National Coach who helped to prepare the Teams?
- What is the name/s of the Teams’ Managers for when they get there?
The most important question of all!
Why am I the only person asking these questions?
——————————————————————–
Below are excerpts taken from an interview with GM Nigel Short
India Hosting 44th Chess Olympiad In 2022
According to GM Nigel Short, VP of FIDE, it is the right moment for India to make a successful bid and host the biennial team chess event.
“India hosting the Olympiad will be good for several reasons. It is a major chess power with about 75 GMs. Prime Minister Modi congratulates young Indian GM Praggnanandhaa on his win against world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and the Indian team on their achievements,” Short added.
“One of the areas that India lacks is quality GM tournaments. The Open tournaments that are held in Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Bhubaneswar,Ahmedabad and others get GMs having a rating in the range of 2500 ELO points.
What we need is tournaments like the Tata Steel Open that is held annually in Kolkata,” International Master and Secretary of Chess Players Forum V.Saravanan told IANS.
Many top Indian players have expressed their desire to participate in round-robin tournaments among themselves.
“We had not had a single tournament in this country with regular time control where former world champion V. Anand played with Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, Praggnanandhaa, Adhiban, Sasikiran, Nihal Sarin and others. That is what we need to popularise the sport and give quality tournaments to our own GMs,” Saravanan said.
Terming AICF lacking vision he said, the Indian federation has a policy of harming the game by not holding round-robin tournaments in India.
According to Saravanan, the sport can be popularised only by giving publicity and making our elite players as showpieces.
“If you do things like the Olympiad hopefully, the quality participation which is a must from all countries will make the game very popular. The CPF (Chess Players Forum) will be very happy if that happens,” Saravanan said.
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial team event, in which teams from approximately 190 countries compete for two weeks.
“Around 2,500 persons — chess players, coaches, team managers, chess officials from different countries, journalists and others — will arrive at the city where the Chess Olympiad is held,” Short added.
With star hotels starved of guests due to Covid-19 ban, the Olympiad will be a boon for the Indian hoteliers to beef up their room occupancy, food and beverage revenue.
The Chess Olympiad will be the second major global chess competition that will be held in the country after 2013.
In 2013, the World Chess Championship was held between the then defending champion India’s V. Anand and the then Challenger Magnus Carlsen from Norway.
Back to News