Chess Olympiad will start today; 188 teams in open category, 162 in women | Sports | Deshabhimani

Chennai
World Chess Olympiad begins today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event at Chennai Nehru Stadium at 6 pm. Chief Minister MK Stalin will be the chief guest. The matches will be held from tomorrow to August 10 at Mahabalipuram. The first round match will start tomorrow at 3 PM at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Mahabalipuram. The competition is in Open and Women categories. There will be 188 teams in the Open and 162 teams in the Women’s category. Being the hosts, India field three teams each in both categories. A team consists of five players. Four players from two teams will face each other in a round. The team that wins more matches will be the winner. There are 11 rounds of competition in total.

The powerful Russia and China are not participating. World champion Magnus Carlsen predicts that India has a chance to win the Open category. Karlsson is in the Norway team. America and Azerbaijan will challenge. He won bronze in 2014 and 2021. 2020 online competition shared gold with Russia. Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan teams are strong among women.