Chennai Chess Olympiad closing ceremony live updates

The international chess event is being held at the Four Points by Sheraton Mamallapuram Resort and Convention Centre near Chennai, Tamil Nadu since July 29 following a grand inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will end on August 10. 

The event witnessed players from across the globe representing 187 countries competing on 700 boards. 

Here are the live updates:

6.05 pm

CM Stalin arrives

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K Stalin who arrived at the venue of the closing ceremony reached the dais.

5 pm

India ‘B’ team wins bronze in Open section; India ‘A’ women also finish third

India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section while the India ‘A’ women’s side also finished third in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on August 9, 2022.

4 pm

Chess under the sea

The barracudas off the coast of Neelankarai were going about their Sunday as usual when they noticed something peculiar: three checkered square boards. And on them stood black-and-white pieces in the shape of pawns, bishops, knights, rooks, kings and queens. Soon, schools of bannerfish, angelfish, jackfish and a solitary turtle joined the barracudas, as they witnessed their first underwater game of chess — Priyadarshini  Paitandy

3 pm

For the taste of chess

Temple City group of hotels in Madurai has introduced a chess board cake to mark the ongoing Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

As a tribute to the world’s biggest team chess championship that is underway in Mamallapuram, the Temple City group of Hotels in Madurai has created a chess board cake complete with 64 black-and-white squares and 32 chess pieces — Soma Basu

1 pm

Explained | The Chess Olympiad: Where it all began and how India rose to the top

Visitors playing Chess at the venue of the 44th Chess Olympiad being held at Mamallapuram on August 2, 2022
| Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

Founded in 1924 in Paris, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) organizes the biennial Chess Olympiad. The first official event was hosted in 1927 by the United Kingdom in London, with Hungary taking the gold medal.The Olympiad follows the 11-round Swiss format with two nations’ teams (four players and one reserve) competing against each other on four corresponding boards. 

After gaining Independence from the British, India first participated in the FIDE Chess Olympiad held at Moscow in 1956 and finished 27th. Since then, India has bettered its game, winning bronze in 2014, gold in 2020, and bronze in 2021. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was held virtually in 2020 and 2021.

In 2020, India and Russia were jointly crowned champion because the result of two games in the second finals match was affected by a net outage in Cloudflare servers — Suchitra Karthikeyan

12 pm

Chennai Chess Olympiad inaugural updates

Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding the Chess Olympiad Torch along 
with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Grandmasters Vishwanathan Anand, R. Praggnanandhaa, D. Gukesh and International Master S. Vijayalakshmi on July 28, 2022
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

A gala opening ceremony of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad took place at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on July 28, 2022. The international event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.