Anand and Sasikaran to Gukesh and Pragg: India’s rise at the Chess Olympiad Premium

The current team in the Open event in Budapest is India’s strongest ever and second only to the U.S. in ELO ratings

D. Gukesh, who is the youngest challenger in chess history, is from Chennai. | Photo Credit: Michał Walusza

As the 45th Chess Olympiad is being held in Budapest, we look at historical performances in the Open section of the most prestigious event of team chess. India has been participating in the biennial event since 1956 and has played in every Olympiad since 1980.

Table 1 shows various countries’ historical performance in the Chess Olympiad (Open).

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The Olympiad was dominated by the erstwhile Soviet Union, which won 18 gold medals. Russia and the U.S. have won six gold medals each, while India has got two bronze medals, in 2014 and 2022.

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Table 2 shows the average ELO ratings for teams in the Open section in the Budapest Olympiad.

In Budapest, India’s team comprising Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, and P. Harikrishna is the strongest one ever fielded by the country. The average ELO rating for India (2753) is just four points behind the U.S., rated the No. 1 team.

Chart 3 shows India’s performance in Chess Olympiads since 1980 (starting ELO rating in left axis, final position in right axis).

This squad also boasts the highest starting ELO rating for an Indian team. In 2018, the squad had an average of 2724.

Table 4 lists the best individual performances across Olympiads (Open).

D. Gukesh won an individual gold in 2022, scoring 8 points in 11 games for a points per game (ppg) score of 0.82. Among all the players who played a substantive number, the Soviet great, Mikhail Tal, remains the best performer with 0.81 ppg in 101 games, followed by former world champion Anatoly Karpov (Table 4).

Chart 5 shows Indians who played in the Open section in Chess Olympiads.

For India, GM Krishnan Sasikiran has been a warhorse, scoring 0.62 points per game in 113 games, while talisman V. Anand played 87 games (0.66 ppg). Rafiq Khan scored 0.69 ppg in 29 games and won India’s first medal, a silver, in the Malta Olympiad in 1980.

Chart 6 shows the performance of Indian players at the Chess Olympiad as per ELO ratings versus the number of games they have played

In terms of performance ELO rating that captures the level of competition, Vidit Gujrathi leads with 2698.7 ELO points among Indians who played at least 30 games in the Olympiad.

Source: olimpbase.org

srinivasan.vr@thehindu.co.in

vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in

Published - September 13, 2024 08:00 am IST