Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni.
Photo Credits: The Goan
PANAJI
Goa's Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni has been selected in the Indian chess team for the forthcoming 44th Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai.
Bhakti will attend a special training camp organised by the All India Chess Federation where former World Championship Challenger Grand Master Boris Gelfand will mentor the Indian team in Chennai.
“I am thrilled. It's a huge honour and another opportunity for me to win a medal for our country,” Bhakti said after the AICF announced the women's team, which also includes GM Koneru Humpy, GM Dronavali Harika, IM R.Vaishali and IM Tania Sachdev.
Though Bhakti has been a member of medal-winning Olympiad teams for the last two years, the events were played online then due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bhakti had been a member of all the team championships she participated in for the last two years. She participated in -- Online Chess Olympiad 2020 (gold), Online Asian Women Team Championship, 2020 (gold), Online Chess Olympiad 2021 (bronze), World Women Team Championship, Spain 2021 (silver), Online Chess Super League Teams, 2021 (first).
Biggest squad
The AICF on Monday announced the country’s biggest-ever 20-member squad for the Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai from July 28 to August 10. On the other hand, the second team will comprise of young talents, who have been making headlines with their consistent performances in the last couple of years, including Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh D and Raunak Sadhwani. They will be making their debuts at the Chess Olympiad. The team will also have experienced player Adbhiban B, who was a part of the Indian side which won the bronze medal in 2014. The second team, in the women’s section, will consist of national champions Soumya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes and Padmini Rout along with Vantika Agarwal and 15-year-old Divya Deshmukh. The five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who decided against playing the upcoming Chess Olympiad, will be very much in action as the mentor of the Indian teams.
India being the hosts are entitled to field two teams each — in Open category as well as women’s section for the first time ever. It has certainly bolstered the medal chances at the 14-day event which is expected to witness participation of world’s top names from more than 150 countries.
Vidit Gujrathi, who led India to gold medal in the 2020 Chess Olympiad, held virtually, will be part of India’s first team in open section alongside Pentala Harikrishna and Chennai-based Krishnan Sasikiran, who have represented India on numerous occasions. The 19-year-old Arjun Erigaisi and SL Narayanan will also be part of the first team.
Interestingly, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali will be the second set of siblings to represent the country at the same Olympiad after N Saritha and N Sudhakar Babu, who played in 1988’s edition held in Greece.
