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IMAGE: The 36-year-old Humpy will be the senior-most Indian chess player at the quadrennial games. Photograph: Global Chess League
India will send a strong 10-member chess contingent, including double Asian Games gold medallist Koneru Humpy and bronze medallist Dronavalli Harika, for the continental games, scheduled to commence in Hangzhou on September 23.
Vidit Gujrathi and young Arjun Erigaisi in men’s and Humpy and Harika in women’s section will compete in the individual categories.
The men’s team comprises Grandmasters D Gukesh, Gujrathi, Erigaisi, P Harikrishna and R Praggnanandhaa.
In the women’s section, Humpy, Harika, R Vaishali, Vantika Aggarwal and Savitha Shri will participate in the team event.
The team announcement was made on Sunday during the General Body meeting of the All India Chess Federation (AICF) in Kanpur, which was chaired by its president Sanjay Kapoor.
All the players are coming off a gruelling Global Chess League (GCL), where they faced top-notch competition from some of the greatest chess players in the world, including Norway’s five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen.
The 36-year-old Humpy, who had said earlier this year that she might skip the Asian Games in Hangzhou due to Covid, will be the senior-most Indian chess player at the quadrennial games.
She had won the women’s individual and mixed team gold at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. The other Asian Games medallist in the side is Harika, who won an individual bronze at the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, after which chess was not a part of the continental games’ curriculum in the 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta editions.
Chess is returning to the Asian Games after 13 years.
AICF president Sanjay Kapoor said he was confident Indian players will be on the podium in all the events they compete in at the Asian Games.
“Nobody believed me when I said India will win medals at the Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram. But we ended up winning two medals last year,” said Kapoor on Sunday.
The India ‘B’ team comprising Gukesh, Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani clinched bronze in the 44th Chess Olympiad held near Chennai, while the women’s team, comprising Humpy, Vaishali, Tania
Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni, blew up a great chance against the US, to finish third on the podium.
The team:
Men: D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, P Harikrishna and R Praggnanandhaa.
Women: Koneru Humpy, D. Harika, R Vaishali, Vantika Aggarwal and Savitha Shri.
