Exciting battles expected at the National Teams 2017

Exciting battles expected at the National Teams 2017

The 37th National Team Chess Championship and 15th National Team Chess Championship for Women got off to a rousing start here at Bansal Institute of Science & Technology on Thursday.

A total number of 43 teams in the Open and 14 in Women section are taking part in this one week long prestigious championship, which has seven grandmasters, eighteen International Masters in action in open and one International Master and five Women grandmasters in women.

Team-Starting rank

It looks like a battle between four teams in the open section. And with the PSPB not participating it looks like anyone could be a winner. Of course, in 2016 we had the Railways A win the tournament ahead of PSPB, but prior to that it was hard to imagine any other team winning the event apart from the Petroleum giants. This year the Petroleum Sports Promotion has not sent a team to the event. Adhiban is still in Netherlands, Sethuraman, Abhijeet Gupta and Lalith Babu are in Gibraltar, Deep Sengupta is getting married and in general the company would not want to send a team that would be in the danger of not winning. Thus, this year will miss one of the best teams in India.

With Grandmasters Shyam Sundar and S L Narayanan in their lineup Airports Authority of India started as top seed in the Open followed by defending champions Railways ‘A’ and Air India. In women's section Air India got the top billing while Airports Authority of India and Life Insurance Corporation starting as second and third seed respectively.

As expected, the seeded teams had an easier outing in the opening round as Airport Authority of India defeated Academy of Chess Education while defending champions and second seed Railway ‘A’ team outwitted Bihar ‘B’. Third seed Air India also had an easy day as they overcame Punjab without much struggle. In women section, Air India defeated Telangana while Airports Authority of India and Life Insurance Corporation got better off Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ respectively.

With a rating average of 2515 the Airport Authorities of India look very strong, but they will have stiff challenge from Railways A, who have an average Elo of 2501!

GM Swapnil Dhopade has already begun his exploits in Madhya Pradesh by winning the Mandla Open. He is a rock solid player and with M.S. Thejkumar, the Railways A look like an extremely formidable team.

Air India is the third seed. The team has a nice mix of experienced players as well youngsters.

Indian Railways B might not be able to compete with the likes of AAI and Railways A, but it goes without saying that each of their players has the capability of beating any player on their best day.

The Open section has a few more good teams in the form of Viyugam CA and LIC, who are the fifth and sixth seeds respectively. 

Women's section

The biggest attraction at the event is definitely Air India team consisting of Vijayalakshmi, Meenakshi, Bhakti Kulkarni and Aarthie Ramaswamy. They are rated nearly 130 points above the second seeds and look like a clear favourite to win the title.

The second seeds AAI consist of young bloods: Srija, Parnali, Rucha and Sakshi. It will be interesting to see if they can upset the mighty Air India!

Team LIC has two strong players in the form of Kiran Manisha Mohanty...

About the author

Gopakumar became an A-grade International Arbiter during the FIDE Arbiter's Commission meeting. He is only the fifth Indian to achieve this feat. He was the chief arbiter at two 2600+ double round robin events, Asian Youth Chief Arbiter at South Korea, Deputy chief arbiter at Asian Youth and Asian Junior at New Delhi. He dedicates his success to the Air Force background that he comes from. 

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National Teams 2016: A gripping affair