Gukesh, Erigaisi on a high

Bagging a bronze in the last Chess Olympiad at Chennai in 2022 the Indian team from the very first round of the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad at Budapest has made it loud and clear that this time they are gunning for goldEight wins on the trotEight consecutive match victories and a draw against defending champion Uzbekistan in the ninth round has the team perfectly perched at the top of the points tally with a 1718 score Top seeds USA Uzbekistan and China follow closely with 15 points each which made the India versus USA encounter in the penultimate 10th round scheduled late on Saturday night a crucial onePole position on the podium appears very much on the cards for the Indian team at this stage but what has been most heartening and a proud moment for India has been the powerpacked performances of D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi which has resulted in two Indians featuring in the Top 5 of the world ratings Live for the very first time in the history of the game Erigaisi hailed as the wonder boy from Warangal has been the highest rated Indian and justified this with a whopping 89 points at this Olympiad D Gukesh with an equally fantastic 78 effort has catapulted himself to the fifth position in the Live world rankings just behind ErigaisiAlso ReadVantika helps Indian women draw with USA at Chess OlympiadIt is not often that a team barring the erstwhile USSR have played in such a dominating fashion at the Olympiad The Indian team have maintained a clean slate all five players Gukesh R Praggnanandhaa Erigaisi Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna undefeated in this tournamentGujrathi has also been in fine form scoring 658 and Harikrishna tallying 254 Pragg generally on the aggressive side has been a bit subdued conceding six draws and eking two victories Four players are fielded for every round with one player enjoying a rest dayThat match against Wei YiEighteenyearold Gukesh scheduled to play for the world title in November this year against Ding Liren of China is also in contention for an individual gold on the top board His games have bordered on the brilliant the victory against Wei Yi of China in the seventh round literally a masterclass for the enthusiasts Fine focus determined dedication and Gukeshrsquos chess have been on the intense and strong side exhibiting his phenomenal positional strengthTwentyoneyearold Erigaisi on the other hand sprinted to an astonishing 66 before conceding a draw in the seventh round and is also a strong contender for an individual gold medal on the third board ldquoAn objective outlook and playing the position as per the situationrdquo has been the magical mantra in Erigaisirsquos own words Erigaisi also said that this team believe in ldquochilling it outrdquo and they shared jokes even as they chalked out strategies for teams and individual playersThe Indian team have always appeared in great spirit and the camaraderie is difficult to overlook before and after games Most of the top players in the world are also seen hovering and keenly watching this young Indian team in action including the highest rated player in the world Magnus CarlsenThe Indian think tank spearheaded by nonplaying captain GM Srinath decided to field Gukesh on the top board and Erigaisi on the third board a tactic which has paid rich dividendsInterestingly in the 10th round all the USA players are rated higher than their Indian counterparts and an upset victory or even a draw for Team India would put the gold medal within touching distance