Indian team confident of great show in online chess Olympiad

CHENNAI: Rotating all the players including the reserves, fielding the best team against an opponent, decisive results by the juniors while the seniors protecting the turf at the top boards propelled the Indian chess team to the quarters of the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, said chess masters.

One young chess Grandmaster (GM) told IANS: "Certainly, there will be a medal for India if the team continues to play like this."

The team mood is also upbeat after topping Pool A beating China with a convincing 4-2 margin in the last round.

"The high point definitely was winning against China. The low point was the draw against Mongolia from winning. This in turn made the victory against China something special," Indian team captain Vidit Santosh Gujrathi told IANS.

Gujrathi said the team has performed well till now and this has to be carried into the knockout stage.

One of the notable points was the rotation of the players which Gujrathi said is to field the best team.

"All the reserve players have played till date so that they are also in form during quarter finals further," the GM said.

There are several unbeaten players in the Indian team.

India won all the games with a convincing margin putting pressure on the opponents. The Indian team has scored four or more in all the games except against Mongolia where the game ended 3-3.

Owing to the disruption in power supply, Gujrathi and K. Humpy lost their games against Mongolia.

According to Gujrathi, necessary steps are being taken to have back-ups for power supply, internet connectivity.

Apart from back-up for power the team now has a channel bonding system for uninterrupted net connectivity. In simple terms, if one net connection fails, the next one takes over within a second so that there is no loss of precious time in this fast game. IANS

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