The 44th Chess Olympiad, organized by The International Chess Federation, commonly referred by its French acronym FIDE will be held in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, India from 28th July to 10th August 2022.The Chess Olympiad is a classic worldwide event where the best of the best compete against each other for their respective nations. The Chess Olympiad crowns the strongest national team which will be considered the strongest chess nation of that time and FIDE’s Team Champion.

The first unofficial Chess Olympiad took place in Paris in 1924. And after that Chess Olympiad was held annually which eventually lead the path to the 44th chess Olympiad 2022. Even though the Chess Olympiad 2022 was originally scheduled to be held in Russia, it later got relocated to India, to be more specific Four Points by Sheraton Mahabalipuram Resort & Convention Centre. A resort resting at an affluent location near the beach and the famous shore temple of Chennai, which will act as the official venue for this classical event in which nations compete in equally classical games for gold medals ,trophies and most importantly the title of the strongest chess nation.

The event will kick-start on 28th of July with a glamorous opening ceremony in Chennai with several big names from the political and sports fraternity gracing the event. A total of 11 matches will take place between 29th of July and 9th of August with 4th of August being a rest day. The matches on all days will begin at 3 pm IST. The players will each be given 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

This massive tournament is participated by teams all around the globe including Sri Lanka, China, USA, India, Kenya and Many more. If taken as a certain number 188 teams in the open section and 162 teams in the Women’s section from all around the world will be competing head-to-head in this jaw dropping battle field.

This year’s Sri Lankan Chess stars that will be competing in this long awaited tournament will be as follows:

Open:
IM L M S T De Silva
FM Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage
FM Isuru Alahakoon
K G T S D Kiriella
Nabil Nazar Mohomed

Women:
WIM Sachini Ranasinghe
Desandhi Shihansa Gamage
Janandani Abeysinghe
WCM Pasindi Yathra Wijesuriya
WCM Minethma Lasandi Wickramasinghe

For both the open section and the women’s section of the tournament a team will consist of 4 players and one reserve.

The match results of this tournament are decided by “game points.” Each team gets two point per win, 1 game points for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The team with the most game points wins the match which will result in the respective team gaining two “match points” per said victory. The team with the most match points at the end of the tournament becomes the Olympiad Champion.

The 1st place in the open section will receive the Hamilton-Russel cup, while the 1st place in the women’s section will receive the Vera Menchik Cup. The Federation also ranks in a” Combined classification” based on the sum of their open and women’s placements. So the 1st place in the combined classification takes home the Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy. The players from the top three teams will also receive medals along with individual prizes for the performance ratings of other participants.

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