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Olympiad from today

Special Correspondent

CHESS / India not among medal prospects

NEW DELHI: The Indian chess team, without World champion Viswanathan Anand, has been seeded 13th in the 157-nation Chess Olympiad beginning in Dresden, Germany from Thursday.

The ladies team, led by World junior girls’ champion D. Harika in the absence of K. Humpy, is seeded 11th in the field of 119 countries.

The seeding is based on the average rating of all five players in the two sections.

K. Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, G.N. Gopal and Sandipan Chanda form the Indian challenge in the Open section.

The ladies team comprises Harika, Tania Sachdev, Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate and Mary Ann Gomes.

For the first time, the members of the Indian teams have been chosen on the basis of rating and not on the ranking achieved in the National championships. India Cements has sponsored the team to the tune of Rs. 10 lakh.

Anand had indicated his preference to stay away from the biennial event since it followed within a fortnight of his world title match against Vladimir Kramnik. Humpy had pointed to her prior commitments to play in Europe as a reason for giving the Olympiad a miss.

In the previous edition of Olympiad in 2006, India was seeded two, behind Russia, but finished a dismal 30th while the ninth seeded ladies were placed 12th.

In the absence of Anand and Humpy, India is not in serious medal hunt.

Rule changes

This year, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has made changes in the rules of the Olympiad. The number of players in the Open section has been reduced from six to five for each team. The number of boards in the ladies section stands increased from three to four.

The rounds in both sections will be 11, instead of 13. An agreement on draw is not allowed before black’s 30th move.

In both sections, Russia begins as the favourite, followed by Ukraine and China.

Russia, comprising Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svilder, Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Jakovenko enjoys an average rating of 2756, away ahead of second seed Ukraine, at 2729.

Onus on Kramnik

Kramnik, who performed exceptionally in the last edition in 2006, will be keen to erase the bitter defeat at Bonn in his world championship title-clash against Anand and help his team justify its billing.

Ukraine, the winner in 2004, has fielded Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Pavel Eljanov, Zahar Efimenko and Andrei Volokitin. Defending champion Armenia is seeded ninth.

In the ladies category, World champion Alexandra Kosteniuk heads the Russian challenge in the company of Tatiana Kosintseva, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Ekaterina Korbut and Elena Tairova.

The following are the top-15 seeds (with average rating):

Open: 1. Russia (2756), 2. Ukraine (2729), 3. China (2714), 4. Azerbaijan (2709), 5. Hungary (2692), 6. Bulgaria (2691), 7. France (2690), 8. Israel (2682), 9. Armenia (2677), 10. USA (2673), 11. Germany (2647), 12. Spain (2644), 13, India (2634), 14, Romania (2631), 15. England (2629).

Ladies: 1. Russia (2491), 2. Ukraine (2486), 3. China (2486), 4. Georgia (2476), 5. France (2427), 6. Armenia (2397), 7. USA (2396), 8. Hungary (2389), 9. Poland (2386), 10. Serbia (2386), 11. India (2379), 12. Germany (2379), 13. Bulgaria (2375), 14. Slovenia (2359), 15. Slovakia (2348).

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