The Tromso World Chess Olympiad in 2014 saw for the very first time, a team from Asia emerging as the champion in the open section – China had made history and with India in third place it seemed we were witnessing a changing of the world order!
Two years before, at the Istanbul World Chess Olympiad 2012, China had ensured this would not be a big surprise when they finished second in both the open and the women’s sections.
But in the Baku World Chess Olympiad 2016, while the once again top seeded China women finally took Gold after repeatedly setting for second, their men were never in contention and only finished a disappointing 13th in failing to defend their title.
What can we then expect from the leading Asian teams at in Batumi?
China’s No. 1 Ding Liren has gone from strength to strength in the last two years, and will form a near impregnable top board for his team. Remember that he is now without a loss since August 2017 and is nearing the 2800 mark. But question marks remain of the rest of the top Chinese who are all amongst the elite but have not shown the same level and results as at the time they won in Tromso.
While China remains the No. 2 chess nation in the world and will still be a favourite, the big challenge from Asia might come from a highly motivated and always dangerous Indian team who have their former world champion Viswanathan Anand finally returning to play in Olympiads.
After all, no one can underestimate a team from the fifth ranked country in the world which has the likes of Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Santosh Gujrathi Vidit, and Baskaran Adhiban.
The rest of Asia is still far from these top two and while unlikely to challenge for the medals, the likes of Vietnam led by Le Quang Liem, Iran with its golden generation now mature, and ex-Soviet republics Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will expect to surprise top teams and perform at a high level.
In the women section, China will again fight their eternal rivals Russia for Gold with hosts Georgia and Ukraine every much also in the mix.
Of course the question being asked is if China’s top ranked woman in Hou Yifan would play for the team.
India will this time around be a medal contender with Koneru Humpy returning to the fold and a team that can include Harika Dronavalli, Eesha Karavade, Tania Sachdev and current and three time national champion Padmini Rout is going to be seriously strong.