BENGALURU: In sporting September will go into overdrive when the Asian Games begin in Aichi-Nagoya from next weekend. One of the biggest multi-discipline events in history -- over 15000 athletes -- will compete for continental glory and with Indians in the mix in a variety of events across the two weeks, the push for medals will be widely anticipated.
A few day before the Games begin, though, the stage will be set for Samarkand in Uzbekistan as the chess Olympiad -- FIDE's biggest team event -- starts from Wednesday. It will be another competition where Indians will be the focus, not least on the Open side for a whole host of reasons.
Firstly, they go in as defending champions. But keep aside the tag as one of the favourites -- they are seeded second behind the US -- because there are other factors to consider. Primarily, it's D Gukesh's form. The world champion, battling a ratings drop for over the last year, as well as the upcoming World Championship, hasn't played a game of competitive chess in over 50 days (July 22 at the Chennai Grand Masters meet). Which board will he feature in? Per ratings, he should be on board 4 but lest you forget; he's double defending individual gold medal winner from board 1.
Then, there's R Praggnanandhaa. There's more than a case for saying he's the form chess player right now as he's fresh off winning the Grand Chess Tour. In a team event like the Olympiad, it's all about using players' individual strengths in such a way they accentuate the team's energy and toughness. Which board will he feature in? Board 1 or Board 2? It's likely that the one member of the side not part of the gold medal winning squad in 2024 -- Nihal Sarin -- will be on board 4 with Arjun Erigaisi on the third board. Vidit Gujrathi could be the reserve player.
However, captain Srinath Narayanan was guarded during a select interaction with the media. "You will know on the 15th or 16th," he said. How, though, did he arrive at this decision? He has placed a lot of emphasis in ensuring the players remain in their comfort zones but that comfort will not come at the cost of endangering team unity. "Obviously, if there is a conflict between what's best for an individual and what's best for the team, what's best for the team will definitely be the priority. It has to be the priority because if you, at any point, are too accommodating to one individual, it inevitably puts the other individuals at discomfort and disrupts the team."
While there's a clear understanding between all of them right now -- in itself a small achievement because while they are compatriots, they also happen to be rivals who share similar ambitions of ruling the game at some point (for example, you can say all three of Erigaisi, Pragg and Sarin have designs on the throne Gukesh occupies) -- that wasn't always the case. At the 2023 Asian Games for example, that tension was visible.
"So this (managing a team dynamic where teammates are also rivals) was difficult at first," Narayanan said. "Especially in the 2023 Asian Games, where I would say the tension between the players was at the peak because that was the first time that we had teammates being rivals with each other directly. And the candidate cycle was ending in just a few months from then." When the conversation shifted towards India's potential challengers, the captain namechecked hosts Uzbekistan, US, China as well as Germany, a rising power thanks to the presence of Vincent Keymer and Matthias Bluebaum.
Even a decade ago, when the chess team set sail for the Olympiad, they went in hope and not expectation. Now, there's expectation of at least a medal and considering how they did in 2024 -- they decimated the field by winning gold apart from winning individual gold in two of the four boards -- it's fair to say they have grown. However, 2024 was perfect. "It's a benchmark for sure, but how often we reach that benchmark, we don't know," Narayanan said. "And we are definitely not reaching that benchmark like 10 out of 10 times."
What they did in 2024 was perfection. If they are anywhere remotely close to that mark again, they could well become the first country to defend the Olympiad title since Armenia did the two-peat in 2006 and 2008 (excluding the online Olympiads).
Open players: D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin Vidit Gujrathi
Captain: Srinath Narayanan
Coaches: Vaibhav Suri, Sankalp Gupta
2 India are the second seeds in the Open section
The 46th Olympiad begins in Samarkand on Wednesday
Format
11 Rounds with one rest day.
Classical time control
Swiss style
One gamepoint for a win, 0.5 for a draw.
Winning a round gives a team two matchpoints irrespective of margin of win
The women's Olympiad preview will appear in tomorrow's edition