As the countdown of days continues before Guyana enters the competitive arena of the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India, it may be worthwhile to look at the compositions of other teams.
The USA has been declared the favourite to win the Open section of the Olympiad of the 188 teams expected to compete, while India has been tipped to carry off the Women’s Olympiad, which is expected to see 162 teams being fielded.
However, it should be noted that two of the strongest chess federations, Russia and China, are non-participants. André Shulz, writing in Chess Base News, said: “The Russian Federation was excluded because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Chinese Federation decided not to participate, as protection against the pandemic”.
The USA men, namely, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian (who is playing his first Olympiad for the USA) Leinier Dominguez and Sam Shankland is a formidable side. But so, also, are the Azerbaijani and Indian squads. As the host nation, India is allowed to field two men’s and two women’s teams, which will increase its chances of capturing outright golds in both categories. The Ukrainian and German teams are also seeded 8th and 9th, respectively, at the Olympiad, and either of them can create an upset. The Guyana team is ranked at 153rd from 188 countries with an average rating of 1826. For the women, they are ranked at 137th with an average rating of 1184 from 162 countries. Since the Guyana team would be travelling to India next week, I wish them huge successes at the Olympiad.
Meanwhile, in other international chess news, the Nigerian prodigy Tanitoluwa Adewumi, 11, a former refugee who now resides in New York, captured his second International Master norm at the recent New York Summer Invitational IM-C Tournament. Three norms are required to obtain the title. Among his victims at the tournament was Levy Rozman, an International Master rated 2333 higher than Adewumi’s 2309. The game is published in today’s column.
