Grandmaster Sasikiran to spearhead Indian challenge

Uzbekistan ran away with gold, Kazakhstan came second and India third as the Chinese realised playing at home was certainly not an advantage always. However, the women’s section followed the script with China A and B bagging gold and silver.

India’s bronze medal in the men’s section in Shenyang was a hint that the team had learnt to live without Anand. Krishnan Sasikiran is a Super Grandmaster now while Pentyala Harikrishna and Surya Sekhar Ganguly are improving quickly. The all-GM Indian A team has the services of Dibyendu Barua and Abhijit Kunte who could test the best of Grandmasters over the board.

China are still ahead of India in terms of average rating though only four of their five players are Grandmasters. Ye Jiangchuan at 43 is not certainly young (‘‘I am old,’’ he confides) but his rating of 2682 is awe-inspiring. Xu Jun (2626) and Zhang Zhong (2624) make the Chinese line-up look so formidable. GM Zhang Pengxing (2596) and IM Yu Zhaoteng (2520) complete the Chinese team.

India C have brought in IM Lanka Ravi and Neelotpal Das in place of GB Prakash and Satyapragyan, who opted out of the meet. Sriram Jha, DK Sharma and Roktim Bandopadhyay are the other members of the team.

Koneru Humpy is leading the men’s B team which would be quite strong with British Open champion RB Ramesh, Sandipan Chanda, Tejas Bakre and Pravin Thipsay to assist her. ‘‘I am playing in a team competition for the first time,’’ said Humpy, who came for the meet with her father and coach Koneru Ashok.

‘‘Let me taste it and then I will see,’’ she added. She said she gained experience by playing in different international competitions. ‘‘I gained experience by playing against strong men in Corus B at Wijk aanZee,’’ noted Humpy.

Defending champions Uzbekistan were expected to arrive on Monday but had not turned up till the inaugural ceremony. Kasimdzanov is the key player for Ukbekistan. Kazakhstan, the main rivals for China and India, will not be the same without their ever-green Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov who is more of an Indian these days.

He is currently on a coaching assignment in Pune. Pavel Kotsur (2586) is the only player in this side who was part of the 1999 silver medal winning squad. Former World junior champion Darmen Sadvakasov is the player to watch in the current side.

In the women’s section, the Indian teams were in good spirits after their coaching stint with Vladimirov at Kozhikode. The three teams have players of different generations like veterans Bhagyashree Thipsay, the experienced Vijayalakshmi, Swati Ghate and Nisha and also the emerging Tanya Sachdev.

War in Iraq has taken its toll on the Asian championship as only 10 of the 16 teams that confirmed originally are likely to be in Jodhpur by Tuesday morning. Chief arbiter is SL Harsh and he will be assisted by RS Gupta, Kiran Agrawal, RC Chatterjee, Dharmendra, RA Mathur and Mallick.