Why India is sending 6 teams to the 2022 Chess Olympiad — Explained

The 2022 Chess Olympiad will kickstart on 28th July 2022 in the southern Indian city of Chennai with a glittering opening ceremony. Teams from more than 180 countries from across the globe are expected to flock into the host city for the event.

Being held for the first time since 2018, thanks to the covid-19 pandemic, India will be seen hosting the Chess Olympiad for the first time in history. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) along with FIDE also hosted a torch relay across the country for the first time in history.

India will be seen fielding a total of 6 teams at the 2022 Chess Olympiad, while the maximum limit for other teams is two teams - one each in the open and women's section. Why?

Why is India fielding 5 teams at the 2022 Chess Olympiad?

As per the rules of FIDE, the host nation for the Chess Olympiad can field two teams in each in both open and women's section. With the Olympiad being hosted in Chennai, India are entitled to have 4 teams in the event.

But, where does the fifth team come into the picture?

Since the number of teams registered to compete in the both open and women's section were odd, FIDE awarded the hosts India with one more slot in each category to even things out.

Thus, India will field 6 teams in the 2022 Chess Olympiad.

This is how the five Indian teams will line up for the Olympiad.

Open Section

Team A: Vidit Gujrathi, Pentala Harikrishna, Arjun Erigiasi, SL Narayanan, Kiran Sasikiran

Team B: B Adhiban, R Praggnanandhha, Nihal Sarin, D Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani

Team C: Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Karthikeyan Murali, SP Sethuraman, Abhijeet Gupta, Abhimanyu Puranik

Women's Section

Team A: Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni

Team B: Vantika Agarwal, Sowmya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini Rout, Divya Deshmukh

Team C: Eesha Karavde, Sahiti Varshini, Partyusha Bodda, Nandhidhaa PV, Vishwa Vasnawala