The Hindu : Sport / Chess : India faces strong Chinese challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Chess

India faces strong Chinese challenge

V.V. Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Indian camp was upbeat on the eve of the Asian chess team championship for men and women for the GVC Trophy. The men’s team is the defending champion and will be led by K. Sasikiran.

India is likely to face a strong challenge from China. “It is going to be really tough, but we are ready for the challenge. Being a round-robin format, it can be anybody’s game. We have not yet decided who should play on which board,” Sasikiran said at the inaugural function.

Strong contingent

India is fielding one of the strongest teams ever in the Asian championship led by Sasikiran (Elo 2677) which also includes Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, G.N. Gopal and Abhijeet Gupta in it. This team was capable of shocking the best in the business.

Ganguly is a three-time national champion; Kunte, a seasoned campaigner and a fighter in crisis situations. They are backed by Gopal and Abhijeet, two of the latest Indian Grandmasters. India has got an extra entry in both the men’s and women’s sections by virtue of being the host. The India Blues team will be led by former Asian junior champion J. Deepan Chakravarthy and includes Neelotpal Das, Gogineni Rohit, Suvrajit Saha and Arun Prasad.

Dronavalli Harika, fresh from her recent win at the Commonwealth championship in Delhi, spearheads the Indian women’s challenge for India ‘A’, with Nisha Mohota, Doha Asian Games gold medallist Tania Sachdev and former world under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy as her teammates.

“I think the Chinese are the favourites but it doesn’t mean that we have come here to just participate. We are mentally prepared for the task ahead,” said Harika.

The India ‘B’ team will be led by Swathi Ghate and includes Soumya Swaminathan, Amruta Motkal and Baisaki Das.

For the record, China has fielded the strongest of the teams in the fray with an average Elo rating of 2661. The two highest-rated players Wang Yue (Elo 2698) and Bu Ziangzhi (Elo 2691) are expected to dominate. Vietnam and Uzbekistan are seeded third and fourth respectively.

The men’s winner of this edition will qualify for the 2008 World team championships.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport