Chess Olympiad: Post euphoria, time to make next move

Despite the 2 bronze in Chess Olympiad, there are issues that need to be addressed to take the game to the next level in India. TOI takes a look...With a bronze medal in each section, the Chess Olympiad for first-time hosts India was a success. But even the medals warrant some stock-taking and post mortem. In a somewhat justified euphoria following the big festival, Indian chess would do well in processing the underlying messages. Hosting the Olympiad is not particularly in demand due to the costs involved. The USA and China have won gold medals without ever hosting the event. And when India play in Budapest 2024, they will have just one team in each section and won't have a cushion of three. More than Rs 90 crore was committed by the Tamil Nadu government for the biennial extravaganza. On the other hand, India still can't don't have an elite classical round-robin event or a strong GM norm tournament for home-grown players in the regular chess calendar. Accepting a higher number of entries for more corpus through entry fees, playing two or more rounds in a day to save an extra day's rent for the playing hall, absence of playing tiebreak, lack of dynamic tournament format and huge base of lower rated players (below Elo 2200) are realities that Indian chess is grappling with.

The performance of the youngsters (India 2) ahead of the elite players and the meltdown of the women's team are potential eye-openers. Praveen Thipsay, former seven-time National champion and head of the delegation at the Olympiad, felt that the players from men's B team were more battle-ready. "We can't have a fixed formula of selection. Some players could be very strong in Elo rating. But that doesn't mean they are ready for Swiss League team