Indian women eye chess Olympiad medal in Baku

CHENNAI — The fifth-seeded Indian women’s chess team, spearheaded by World No.5 Grandmaster (GM) Harika Dronavalli, is confident of putting up a good show at the upcoming World Chess Olympiad at the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, its members say.

With an average ELO rating of 2410 points, the Indian women’s team is seeded after China (2528), Russia (2493), the Ukraine (2485) and Georgia (2474).

Besides Dronavalli (2542), the Indian team comprises International Master (IM) Padmini Rout (2415), WGM Soumya Swaminathan (2370), IM Tania Sachdev (2396) and WIM Pratyusha Bodda (2329).

“On paper, the medal chances are pretty good for us. All the four teams ranked above us are also good. If we win against any one of the top four teams then the medal chances are good,” Dronavalli said.

She however added a rider that the performance of a player depends on her form on that particular day. “If all the five players of the Indian team are in good form then the medal chances are good,” Dronavalli remarked.

According to her, the team to watch out for is the one from China, which she considers “very strong”.

The Indian women’s team came fourth in the 2012 Olympiad but crashed to 10th place in 2014, despite being seeded fifth.

Citing this, a chess coach not wanting to be named told the newsmen: “The team’s performance is volatile. In the last Olympiad, it had difficulty even against lower-rated teams. The consistency of performance as per their seeding is not there.”

He said securing the fifth position as per their seeding will itself be a credible performance given the rival line-up.

“Perhaps Dronavalli may have to shoulder more responsibility this time around,” he added. “The team is a balanced one. We drew with China in the (recentlyconcluded) Asian Nations Cup. Seriously, we believe we have a medal chance,” IM Vishal Sareen, the team captain said.