K.V. Lakshminarayana

My Chess Olympiad as a Volunteer

I was excited to know that India had submitted the bid for organising the Chess Olympiad and was later delighted to know that we had got it. When there was a call for Volunteers for the Olympiad, I applied though there was an age bar of 18-30 years. It has been almost three decades since I had crossed the upper age limit. Still I filled the form with emphasis on my Chess article, ‘Understanding My Passion for Chess with Philosophical Depth’ (https://chessbase.in/news/Passion_for_chess).

I was thrilled when I received my selection letter. My main challenge was that my daughter Dr.Reshma, a Senior Resident Doctor at the AIIMS, Mangalagiri, near Vijayawada was in her 8^th month of pregnancy and the likely date of her delivery was close to the Chess Olympiad finish date. Like any daughter, she wanted me to be near her during her maternity leave, but seeing my enthusiasm to attend the Olympiad, she reluctantly allowed me to go and so I booked my ticket to Chennai.

https://www.chessbase.in/news/Chess-Olympiad-2022-volunteer-program
As a senior citizen, I was assigned the task of supervising a set of young volunteers. It's a team event. 187 countries field their teams - both men's (187 teams) (open section) and women's (162 teams). It was 13 teams higher than that held in 2018 at the last event in Batumi. India as a host fielded three teams each for both sections. The venue was at the Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort and Convention Center, 60 kilometers south of central Chennai. It is located in Mamallapuram (we call it Mahabalipuram), one of the famous tourist sites in India and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We named our group as - ‘Passed Pawns’ with the tag line ‘Moving Forward‘. I was called “Professor” by the youngsters as well as the trainers!

Not only the rich Chess culture started by Vishy Anand, but also these monuments could be the reason for choosing Chennai as the venue.

The host of the 44^th Chess Olympiad, India, is represented by three teams in each section (Open and Women). That@apos;s 30 players - established top grandmasters and many young stars, who are the future of chess. Here they are all together in the team uniforms at the special event in their honour.

Dibyendu Barua was later added as the Captain of Women's Team C. Praveen Thipsay was the overall Captain.

Y.V.Ramana, my friend and roommate in Kakinada where we did our B.Tech., (a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University) and a philanthropist who did a lot of charity for chess in Vijaywada flew from USA specially to meet me at the Chess Olympiad site on the International Friendship Day, July 30^th 2022.

Was wondering if anyone else other than Gukesh was on 8/8 in the Olympiad? None in the Open and one in the women. She is Oliwia Kiolbasa (photo above), a WIM. She went 9/9 before a loss in final round and still won the Gold medal on the Board. While Gukesh played top board for India B team, she is played third board for Poland Women's team. Gukesh's performance at the Chennai Olympiad reminds five of the great Olympiad debuts by future world class players: Paul Keres at Warsaw 1935, Bent Larsen at Moscow 1956, Mikhail Tal at Munich 1958, Judit Polgar at Thessaloniki 1988, and Vladimir Kramnik at Manila 1992. (Ed: Refer to Chess Tidbits in 2022-2 Bulletin for more details)

Caruana resigned in this position (vs Gukesh) in the 8^th round of the chess Olympiad. https://youtu.be/of6pyRXIa6U

Open - 10^th round pairing Stumbled upon the following YouTube video that summarizes the 10^th round of India B men's team and Women's team:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T8vJc9yGH8M

Last round (August 9th, 10 a.m.) Pairings.

Women's team pairings

A tremendous performance by India at Chennai chess Olympiad. India won two bronze medals for Ind 2 Open team and for women’s Ind 1 team. Ind 1 Open team sadly came fourth. Women’s Ind 1 team were unlucky to lose to US in last round, which made them miss gold. Both Gukesh and Nihal Sarin won individual gold on 1^st and 2^nd boards, Arjun Erigaisi won silver and Pragg got Bronze on the 3^rd Board. Pragg's sister Vaishali, Tania Sachdev and Divya Deshmukh won Bronze medals on 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Boards. Gukesh had an outstanding 2867 performance, something world champions used to achieve on Board 1. We also won a gold for best combined (Men + Women) team performance- called Gaprindashvili trophy. This was by far India's greatest performance in any Chess Olympiad so far. Thanks to Tamilnadu CM for announcing Rs, One Crore each to the Bronze medal winning teams in this Olympiad.

Susan Polgar
@SusanPolgar
Congratulations to India for organizing one of the best #ChessOlympiad in history! It’s even more impressive with just months of preparation! India finished as #1 chess nation (best combined results), with 2 team bronze, as well as 2 individual gold/1 silver/4 bronze!
@FIDE_chess

David Howell, the prominent British player who got individual Gold Medal on the third Board in the Olympiad had the best performance in this Olympiad for any player. After about a week of my return from the Chess Olympiad, my daughter Reshma safely delivered a baby Girl, whom we named Lekha.

In my Auto-Chess-o-Graphy in AICCF Bulletin (Feb 1995 edition) , I remember saying that my daughter was rattling with the chess pieces and pawns. Three decades after that, now I am saying that my granddaughter is flipping the pages of the book “Chess Pa in Chess Adventure Park.”