The Indian contingent at the 8th IBCA World Team Chess Championships,2018 in Sofia, Bulgaria were undoubtedly the underdogs of the tournament. Being the bottom ranked team in the B-Group of the tournament, the 5 member squad along with their coach IM Sagar Shah had nothing much to lose in this tournament as the other teams were much stronger on paper. However, these men did not lose any hope and performed way better than most of their counterparts. The boys beat players much higher rated than themselves, with Kishan Gangolli and Aryan Joshi both top-scoring for the team with 4.5 each out of the seven rounds that they played in the group stage.
The Indian team finished third in the B-Group, missing out on the semi-final spot by a narrow margin with Poland and Ukraine securing the first and second position respectively. This finish itself was great for the team and they now head into the play-off for the fifth to eighth spots. They will play against the fourth-placed team in Group A- Venezuela. Russia and Germany qualified from Group A for the semi-finals. The top two teams from both the groups will now clash against each other for the semi-finals and finals (Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Germany). The Indian boys did exceedingly well and all credit goes to their hard work and dedication. A huge shout out to the 16 year old Aryan Joshi, who out-witted much higher rated players than him with ease. Soundharya Pradhan and Ashwin Makwana also supported the team with their efforts, while Subendhu Patra did well in the two games that he got to play. Project Checkmate would like to congratulate the team for their wonderful results and we wish you the best for the remaining rounds and the near future. Go India! Note- If you know of anyone who would like to be published, or want to be featured, do drop us a line at [email protected]. Comments are closed.
|