'Indian men's chess team earned respect at chess Olympiad'

Several players failed to win from promising positions but India did well at the World Chess Olympiad, top Indian Grandmaster (GM) R.B. Ramesh has said.

At the just-concluded Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, "we earned our respect with our performance", he remarked.

Ranked fifth in the world based on the average rating of its top 10 players, the Indian team came fourth in the open category at the Olympiad.

The Indian team played well, drawing with top seeds Russia, Norway and winning against Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and England, among others.

"This time we played against several strong teams as compared to 2014 Olympiad where we won the bronze medal. Even on paper nobody would have agreed that we were a medal prospect this time around," Ramesh, the non-playing captain of the Indian open team told IANS.

"We were able to see the attitudinal change towards us from the officials involved in logistics. As we started beating better teams and continue playing at the top boards people began respecting us and was seen from their attitude towards us," Ramesh added.

"We earned our respect at Baku, Azerbaijan," he added.

He also did not agree that the Indian team was under undue pressure.

"As a professional player one has to be ready to play round after round. It is the situation that prevails at many open tournaments. The players did not crib or complain about this," Ramesh said.

--IANS

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