In the absence of Russia and China, Indian women started their campaign at the ongoing 44th World Chess Olympiad in Chennai as the favourites, and after four rounds, remain within striking distance of a podium finish. They have won all their first four matches, but are trailing Poland, the leader, by a game point as Koneru Humpy, the star of the India 1 team, conceded as many as two draws against weaker opponents.
As hosts, India have fielded three teams each in the open and women sections. In the women’s section, both India 1 and India 2 have so far won all their matches, notching up 8 match points (2 for a match win and 1 for a draw), and have scored 13/16 game points each.
Fourth-seeded Poland are slightly ahead with 8 match points and 14/16 game points, followed by France and Ukraine, which too have won all their matches and have 13.5/16 game points each. (In this team event, where each team is made up of five players and four are fielded in each round, wins account for one game point, and draws, 0.5.)
Though Humpy got off to a winning start last week, she faltered in rounds two and four to let her opponents get away with draws. She was rested in the second round. Harika Dronavalli, the second highest rated player on the team, has also had a rather disappointing start: she drew her first two games after being rested in rounds 1 and 2.
Apart from the top two players on the team, the three others have done exceedingly well. R. Vaishali and Tania Sachdev have scored 3.5/4 game points each, meaning they have conceded only one draw each in their first four outings, while Bhakti Kulkarni, has won all the three games she has played so far.
Both Humpy and Dronavalli are child prodigies. They shot to the limelight pretty early in their careers. Humpy, now 35, started winning world titles from the age of 10. At 15, she was the youngest woman ever to achieve the Grandmaster title, smashing the record of the legendary Judith Polgar.
For over a decade, Humpy has remained one of the strongest women on the international chess circuit. But she has not had enough tournament practice in the classical format since March 2020, and her international rating has since remained unchanged at 2586 points. (International ratings are calculated and published every month by the world chess federation based on players’ performances in competitions.)
Dronavalli, 31, has also been a young achiever; she won medals in world age group championships from the early 2000s. She, too, has a formidable international rating of 2517 points, but similar to Humpy, she too appears to be a tad short on practice in competitive chess lately. Prior to the Olympiad, the last competitive event she took part in was in December last year.
India’s second women’s team has turned out to be a surprise package, punching far above its weight. Its top player, 19-year old Vantika Agrawal has maintained a clean slate in the first four rounds, scoring a perfect 4/4 game points. She became a Woman Grandmaster only last year, and despite Covid-related disruptions to tournament practice, her performance in the Olympiad so far has been way above her billing.
The third highest rated player on the team, Soumya Swaminathan, too has had an impressive start. She has conceded only one draw in the first four rounds, to score 3.5/4 game points. Most importantly, everyone in India 1 and 2 remains unbeaten at the end of round four.
The women in India 3, however, have suffered four losses in 16 games. They have 6 match points, and 10.5 game points.
The trailblazer among the six Indian squads is undoubtedly India 2 in the open section, which started off with 12 straight wins—the only team to achieve that feat. Only in the fourth round, they gave away two draws against Italy. Still, with 8 match points and 15/16 game points, they led the field after the fourth round. D. Gukesh has won all his four games, while Nihal Sarin has won all three in which he was fielded.
The more fancied players in the open section, such as Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, who last month forfeited his world title, and the top-seeded US’ Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian and Wesley So have had underwhelming starts compared with the Indians. Carlsen, who was rested in the opening round, conceded a draw in the third round, after grinding out a difficult win in the second round. That game, too, almost ended in a draw for Carlsen.
Caruana, who challenged Carlsen for the world title in 2018, appears to be struggling: he has yet to register a win, having drawn the first two games and losing the third one in what was the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Like Carlsen, he too was rested in the first round.
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