India’s defending champions face a troublesome battle to retain their Chess Olympiad titles after essential losses in Samarkand.
IMAGE: Nihal Sarin’s heartbreaking defeat to Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev. {Photograph}: Sort courtesy MGD1
Key Factors
- The Worldwide Chess Federation (FIDE) notes a ‘winner’s curse’ the place no Open part champion has defended their title within the final 5 Olympiads, and the jinx continues within the girls’s part since 2022.
- Each Indian Open and Girls’s groups have suffered essential losses, making their title defence a troublesome process requiring present leaders to falter and India to win all remaining matches 4-0.
- The second-seeded Indian Open group dropped to seventh place after a 1.5-2.5 loss to host Uzbekistan, with GM Nihal Sarin’s ‘brutal psychological collapse’ contributing to the defeat.
- The Indian Girls’s group is comparatively higher positioned at third, but in addition suffered a setback with a 2.5-1.5 loss to Poland.
- Regardless of the challenges, specialists consider India nonetheless has shiny probabilities, with medals usually determined within the remaining rounds, however the path to gold has develop into considerably harder.
Maybe the Chess Olympiad Winners Curse is popping true for the 2 Indian groups — the defending Chess Olympiad champions — at Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
The Worldwide Chess Federation or FIDE, in a press release issued a few days in the past, stated that over the past 5 editions of the Olympiad, no title winner within the Open part had efficiently defended the title.
Within the girls’s part, the jinx has continued since 2022, prompting FIDE to explain it because the ‘winner’s curse’.
A lot of variables should fall in favour of the Indian chess groups — Open and Girls’s — for them to defend their Olympiad Champion titles after their essential losses.
Firstly, the present match leaders ought to draw their matches and even endure some unfavorable outcomes. And the Indian groups should win all their remaining outings with a 4-0 rating, a tall demand given the competitors.
Is the Chess Olympiad Winner’s Curse Coming True?
The Worldwide Chess Federation or FIDE, in a press release issued a few days again, stated that over the past 5 editions of the Olympiad, no title winner within the Open part had efficiently defended the title.
Within the girls’s part, the jinx has continued since 2022, prompting FIDE to explain it because the ‘winner’s curse’.
“Nonetheless shiny chances are high there for India. Truly, the Olympiad medals will likely be selected final three rounds,” an skilled Worldwide Chess Arbiter, not desirous to be quoted, informed this correspondent.
‘Gold will not be out of attain but, however the highway has definitely develop into a lot harder,’ tweeted former Girls’s World Champion Susan Polgar.
“Something can occur when high groups are pitted in opposition to one another. Like Uzbekistan having China and the USA as sturdy opponents, India too have robust opponents within the remaining 5 rounds,” the Worldwide Arbiter added.
IMAGE: D Gukesh throughout India’s Chess Olympiad marketing campaign. {Photograph}: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE
Indian Open Crew’s Setback
Within the essential sixth-round match in opposition to the host Uzbekistan on Monday, the second-seeded Indian Open group misplaced 1.5-2.5 and, within the course of, was pushed all the way down to seventh place with 10 factors.
Whereas Indian Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh drew their video games, Nihal Sarin, who had an excellent place in opposition to Yakubboev Nordirbek, misplaced the sport ultimately.
‘Brutal Psychological Collapse!’ termed Polgar. ‘Issues had been trying constructive for Crew India. Sarin had a greater place and a 26-minute benefit on the clock. Yakubboev was all the way down to just a little greater than three minutes.
‘Inexplicably, Sarin then performed a sequence of strikes utilizing virtually no time, presumably attempting to place time strain on his opponent. In actual fact, he even gained time with the increment. But it surely was a string of poor strikes and blunders, and he misplaced his queen!’, Polgar stated.
There are 11 groups with 10 factors, two — China and Armenia — with 11 factors, and Uzbekistan on the high with 12 factors on the finish of the sixth spherical.
On Wednesday, second-seeded India, with a mean ranking of two,735 Elo factors, will meet Eleventh-seeded England, with a mean ranking of two,664.
Occasion chief Uzbekistan will likely be combating China whereas Armenia will cross swords with the USA.
There are different sturdy groups like Germany, France, Azerbaijan, Türkiye and the like.
For India, subsequently, the Uzbekistan-China encounter assumes added significance.
A draw would stop the match leaders from pulling additional away, whereas a decisive end result would give one of many two groups a chance to consolidate its place.
Girls’s Crew Place and Remaining Challenges
As in comparison with India’s Open group, the nation’s girls’s group is comparatively higher positioned by way of rating.
The Indian group, with 10 factors, ranks third after China and Kazakhstan, each having scored 12 factors. Nonetheless, there are 10 different groups with 10 factors.
The Indian girls’s group suffered a setback within the fifth-round match in opposition to Poland.
The defending champions misplaced 2.5-1.5 to the Polish girls, with R Vaishali dropping her sport to Maltsevskaya Aleksandra whereas all the opposite three video games led to a draw.
Nonetheless, the problem for the 2 Indian groups is to get a 100 per cent rating within the remaining 5 rounds.
Alternatively, their opponents might play safely for a draw, and the defending champions ought to take care to not be adventurous of their strikes and lose.
The defending champions, subsequently, have little room for error.
The ‘winner’s curse’ could also be a statistical sample moderately than a sporting legislation, however the Indian groups might want to overcome each the standings and the strain of defending their titles within the remaining rounds.
Venkatachari Jagannathan could be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Function Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
