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China, Germany, Iran, Vietnam and Georgia will give India a tough fight at the Online Olympiad

by Sagar Shah - 17/08/2020

40 teams have been decided for the top division of the FIDE Online chess Olympiad 2020. India has been placed in pool A with nine other teams. The favourites in group A are without doubt China. However, India has other teams to worry about as well - the German team has a nice balance of youth and experience, the Iranian team led by Parham Maghsoodloo is as always unpredictable. Le Quang Liem led Vietnam is not to be underestimated, nor is the Georgian team, which is well known for its world class female players. Only if we finish in top three do we advance to the next stage. In this article we bring you all the possibilities as well as the schedule for the event. 

Team India at the FIDE Online Olympiad (top left to right): Vishy Anand, P. Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, Aravindh Chithambara, Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, (Bottom Row left to right): Koneru Humpy, D. Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni, R. Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh

The top division of the FIDE online Olympiad is just 3 days away. It starts from the 21st of August 2020 and the excitement levels are very high as the Indian team will be seen in action. 25 teams were already seeded into the top division and 15 new teams were added from division 2. That makes it a total of 40 teams, which are now divided into four pools (A,B,C and D). Let's have a look at the 10 teams in Pool A in which team India features.

The top team in the pool is China followed by India. Apart from China, India has formidable opponents in the form of Germany, Vietnam, Iran and Georgia.

Team India has an average Elo of 2419 but the team is grossly under-rated because players like Nihal, Pragg, Divya, Vantika have a very low rapid rating as compared to their classical ones 

China seems almost invincible on the open and women boards, but the junior boards is where their weakness lies.

When it comes to team events China in general has been invincible

The German team is well balanced and has a FIDE Elo average of 2419 just like India

Vietnam has world class Le Quang Liem on board 1 and also Nguyen Ngoc Truongson. They are a team that can beat anyone on a given day.

World class and especially strong at shorter time controls - Le Quang Liem

It's good news for other teams that Iran does not have Alireza Firouzja in the team, or else it would have been quite difficult to subdue them. Even now with players like Maghsoodloo, Tabatabei, Khademalsharieh, it is not an easy team to beat.

World Junior Champion 2018, Parham Maghsoodloo is surely a force to be reckoned with

Georgian team has very strong women players in the form of Nana Dzagnidze, Nino Batsiashvili and Bela Khotenashvili. Also Baadur Jobava on the top board can beat just about anyone!

Right since the times of Gaprindashvili and Chiburdanidze, Georgia is known for its female players

If India wins Pool A, it would face the winner of 2nd place in Pool D and 3rd place in Pool C. If India finishes 2nd, it would face third place in pool B and if we finish third we would face 2nd place in pool B.

If India wins Pool A

If India wins Pool A then we get a direct berth in the Quarter Finals. Both Pool C and D become relevant. India would face 2nd place of pool D and 3rd place of Pool C

Pool C - Russia has high chances of winning this pool, Armenian team is also strong. It is highly possible that a team like England, Croatia or Turkey may finish 3rd

Pool D - USA is the favourite. The 2nd plalce might go to the Polish team which is also very strong with players like Duda and Wojtaszek

Conclusion: It's quite difficult to determine who might finished 3rd in Pool C.But India may face Poland if we finish at the top of our pool.

If India finishes 2nd in Pool A

There are high chances of India finishing 2nd as China is the top seed in our group. If we do finish 2nd, then we have to play the Preliminary Round (Pre-Quater Finals) and we would face the 3rd place in Pool B.

Pool B has several strong teams, but one of these three may be our opponents - Azerbaijan, France or the Netherlands

If India finishes 3rd in Pool A

If India finishes 3rd in Pool A, we would face the 2nd place in Pool B (above). Once again it can be one of Azerbaijan, France or the Netherlands.

Schedule:

The following is the schedule of the Indian team. Please note that games will begin on 21st of August 2020 and the timings would be 1.30 p.m. IST onwards:

Date Opponent Timing
21-08-2020 Zimbabwe 1.30 p.m.
21-08-2020 Vietnam 2.30 p.m.
21-08-2020 Uzbekistan 3.30 p.m.
22-08-2020 Indonesia 1.30 p.m.
22-08-2020 Iran 2.30 p.m.
22-08-2020 Mongolia 3.30 p.m.
23-08-2020 Georgia 1.30 p.m.
23-08-2020 Germany 2.30 p.m.
23-08-2020 China 3.30 p.m.

If India does finish in top three, then it will have to play in the pre-quarters, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals. And these games will be held from the 27th to the 30th of August. We hope that team India goes the distance!


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