The 44th Chess Olympiad hosted in Mamallapuram reaches its business end with the 11th and final round and the closing ceremony later on Tuesday. Former India captain and Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is set to attend the closing ceremony and is expected to be the star attraction.
The tournament was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 August at the Nehru indoor stadium where the farewell event will also be held. The Olympiad came to India for the first time ever and saw a record number of teams taking part in the Open and women's sections.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will oversee the closing ceremony. FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich and recently elected deputy president and former World champion Viswanathan Anand will be present at the event.
The event was originally scheduled to be hosted by Ukraine but after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Chess governing body FIDE decided to give India the hosting rights with Chennai being selected as the host city
Talking about the tournament, the Open section saw Armenia and Uzbekistan emerge as joint leaders with 17 points each, whereas India A, India B, and the USA are placed together in second place with 16 points each.
With just two rounds remaining, the pressure was paramount on all teams and players. D Gukesh had some great performances with a fantastic 8.5/9 but a bad day as he botched from very advantageous position, and missed many opportunities to equalise the end on the loser’s side against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a high-intensity game. Hence India B Team had to settle for a 2-2 draw against Uzbekistan.
The second-seeded India A team had an incredible performance as they scored a 2.5-1.5 victory over Iran. Vidit Gujrathi and S L Narayanan won their games for India while Harikrishna lost his fixture. Arjun Erigaisi drew his encounter.
For India B, Praggnanandhaa had put up another impressive showing with his play and registered the only victory for his team, while Adhiban and Nihal Sarin drew their games. Whereas India C Team drew against the lower rated Slovakia 2-2 with Abhimanyu Puranik scoring the victory, Sethuraman lost his game and Ganguly and Karthikeyan registered draws.