Chess Olympiad 2022: Why will India field 6 teams instead of usual two? Explained

India is all set to host the biggest chess tournament i.e Chess Olympiad 2022 which will be held in Chennai. The Chess Olympiad will kickstart on 28th July 2022 with the opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at 7:00 PM IST. The event will be hosted by India for the very first time in its history and will have more than 180 countries from across the globe.

The Chess Olympiad 2022 is being held at the Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort and Convention Centre in Mahabalipuram. The tournament will see participating countries fielding two teams i.e one each in the open and women's sections. However, host India will have a slight advantage compared to others as they will be fielding a total of 6 teams at the Chess Olympiad 2022 event.

Chess news: Why is India fielding six teams in Chess Olympiad 2022?

According to FIDE rules, the host nation for the Chess Olympiad can field two teams in both open and women's sections. Going by the tournament rules India should be fielding four teams during the event however the hosts have now been allowed to field two extra teams for the tournament. Following the absence of Russia and China, the number of teams registered to compete in the both open and women's section was odd. FIDE decided to award hosts India with one more slot in each category to balance things out. 

Chess Olympiad 2022: A look at the Indian teams for the Chennai Olympiad event

A: Vidit S Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, Arjun Erigaisi, S L Narayanan, K Sasikiran.
B: Nihal Sarin, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, B Adhiban, Raunak Sadhwani.
C: Surya Shekhar Ganguly, S P Sethuraman, Abhijeet Gupta, Karthikeyan Murali, Abhimanyu Puranik.

Women: 
A: Koneru Humpy, D Harika, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni.
B: Vantika Agarwal, Soumya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini Rout, Divya Deshmukh.
C: Easha Karvade, Sahithi Varshini. Pratyusha Bodda, P V Nandhidhaa, Vishwa Vasnawala.

Chess Olympiad 2022: Tournament format

The Chess Olympiad 2022 will be played in a classical format, where each player will have 40 moves within 90 minutes. While an additional 30 minutes will be awarded 30 seconds increment, the players will be able to offer a draw to their opponent, at any point of the match. Having said that, here’s a look at the full schedule of the Chess Olympiad 2022.