Krishnana Sasikiran is spearheading the India team with Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, G N Gopal and Sandipan Chanda as his team-mates while Dronavalli leads in ratings in the Women’s team, which has Tania Sachdev, Swati Ghate, Nisha Mohota and Mary Ann Gomes.

I have always found the format for the Olympiad wanting with players losing vital rating points despite playing on the top boards while the players from the teams finishing way below runaway with the Individual medals. This year, however, many new changes have been introduced in the Olympiad, most prominent one being that two points are awarded for a victory even if the team beats its rivals by 4-0 or 2.5-1.5. Also draws cannot be offered before 30 moves without the permission of the arbiter. A team comprises of five players and should field four players for every round.

144 teams in the Open section and 110 in the Women’s section make it a very strong event. Armenia is the defending champion while Ukraine is the reigning Women’s champion. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is the only other top star other than Anand who has given a miss for this high profile event.

Anand had been preparing exclusively for the World Chess Championship that he won at Bonn, for the last one year and cited exhaustion as the main reason for skipping this event. In 2006 at Turin, Anand had literally walked into the second round of the Olympiad after finishing the grueling M-Tel Masters in Bulgaria and went on to record one of his worst performances.

On the other hand, it is not clear why Humpy has skipped this event though she mentioned that she was playing the European Team championship but then that got over 20 days back. The Indian Chess Federation, surprisingly, hasn’t given any valid reasons for the absence of these top stars.

However, the present team does have the potential of bagging individual medals, which are conferred for Board performances that is for the player playing on first board, 2nd, 3rd, fourth and reserve.

At stake, apart from the three medals, are 30 Individual medals for grabs in the Open and women section. Lev Psakhis has been training the Indian team and Anand’s former second Elizbar Ubilava trained the Women. However. the team seeded 13th needs a herculean effort to be in contention for a medal.

GAMES OF THE WEEK

Tania Sachdev (2425) v Berzina,I (2320)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c6 4.Nbd2 Nf6 5.g3 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c5 8.dxc5 Na6 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.e4 Nf6 11.c6 bxc6 12.a3 Nc5 13.Ne5 Qc7 14.Nec4 e5 15.Qc2 Rd8 16.b4 Nd3 17.Bb2 Ba6 18.Bc3 Qd7 19.h3 Bb5 20.Rfb1 c5 21.Qa2 cxb4 22.Bxb4 Bxb4 23.axb4 Qd4 24.Ne3 Nxf2 25.Kxf2 Qxd2+ 26.Qxd2 Rxd2+ 27.Kg1 a6 28.Rd1 Rb2 29.Nd5 Kf8 30.Nc7 Rb8 31.Nxa6 Bxa6 32.Rxa6 R2xb4 33.Ra7 R8b7 34.Rxb7 Rxb7 35.Ra1 Ke7 36.Ra2 Nd7 37.Kf2 Nc5 38.Bf3 Ne6 39.h4 Nd4 40.Bg2 Rc7 41.Bf1 f6 42.Bd3 Nb3 43.Rc2 Rxc2+ 44.Bxc2 Nd4 45.Bd3 Kd6 46.Bc4 Kc5 47.Bg8 h6 48.Bh7 Kc4 49.Ke3 Kc3 50.Bg6 Kc2 51.Bh5 Kc3 52.Bd1 Nc2+ 53.Ke2 Na3 54.Kf3 Kd4 55.Kg4 Nb5 56.Kf5 Nd6+ 57.Kg6 Kxe4 58.Kxg7 Nf5+ 59.Kxf6 Nxg3 60.h5 Kf4 61.Kg6 Nf5 62.Be2 e4 63.Ba6 e3 64.Bd3 Ke5 65.Ba6 Ke4 66.Bb7+ Kd4 67.Ba6 Nd6 68.Be2 Nf5 69.Kxf5 1-0

Persson, T (2543) v G N Gopal (2548)

1.g3 c5 2.Bg2 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.a3 b6 6.d3 Bb7 7.e4 e6 8.Nge2 d6 9.Be3 Nd4 10.Qa4+ Bc6 11.Bxd4 Bxa4 12.Bxg7 Bc6 13.Bxh8 f6 14.h4 h5 15.d4 Kf7 16.d5 exd5 17.exd5 Bd7 18.Ne4 Bf5 19.N2c3 Qf8 20.0-0 Rd8 21.Rfe1 Qh6 22.Bxf6 Nxf6 23.Ng5+ Kg8 24.Re7 Qf8 25.Rxa7 Rd7 26.Rxd7 Nxd7 27.Re1 Ne5 28.Bf1 Qf6 29.Be2 Nf7 30.Nxf7 Kxf7 31.a4 Qe5 32.Ra1 Kg7 33.a5 bxa5 34.Rxa5 Qd4 35.Ra6 Qd2 36.Rb6 Qe1+ 37.Kg2 Bh3+ 38.Kf3 Bg4+ 39.Ke3 Qc1+ 40.Ke4 Qd2 41.Bxg4 hxg4 42.Nb5 Qe2+ 0-1