The World Team Championships for men and women are taking place from March 4 – 15 in Astana. India has received Wild card for both men and women's event. In the first round we take on Sweden.

We ae definitely the favourites with only Adhiban being nominally under rated as compared to his opponent

The young Iranian team against Russian will be something to look forward to. Also it will be interesting to see if Egypt can upset USA which is clearly lacking its best players.

The Indian team is well balanced with experience, youth and energy. Sasikiran and Ganguly (right) are the guys with all the experience, Adhiban and Sethuraman have the energy in them to fight against the best. And Aravindh's inclusion (left) in the team will surely see some upsets being scored. Also the coach of the team is youngster Srinath Narayanan. | Photo: David Llada

Caption this! The best answer (in the comments section) will receive 1 month ChessBase Account serial key! | Photo: David Llada

The women's team consists of Soumya Swaminathan, Eesha Karavade, Padmini Rout and coach Swapnil Dhopade. Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni had not yet arrived. | Photo: Swapnil Dhopade's Facebook page

Team India faces a big challenge right in the first round itself. It is up against Georgia.

Ramco is the sponsor of the Indian team. This is the first time that the players are being paid a fee for playing at the World Team Championships.
Interview with founder of Ramco Mr. Venketrama Raja, who is all the President of All India Chess Federation (AICF)

The Kazakhstan capital is used to staging events of such magnitude, but Tournament Director and Vice-President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation Zhandos Abishev admits that “organizing everything in only 5 weeks was a real challenge, but all is ready just in time. We would never have been able to make it without the support from our partners, namely our general sponsor ERG, our general partner Samruk-Kazyna, our social partner Samruk-Kazyna Trust and our partner AIFC”. Serik Sapiyev adds that “the popularity of chess has been continuously increasing in the past years. Prestigious events like this World Championship contribute to the further promotion of chess in Kazakhstan”. Ten teams will face each other in both sections.

 

The leader of the Kazakh women’s team Zhansaya Abdumalik believes that “Kazakhstan can achieve something very special here. Russia, China and the Ukraine are certainly favourite, but the gap with other teams is quite small, so that anything can happen”. Sergej Karjakin has fond memories of Astana. “It is a lucky place for me, as I became the World Champion in rapid chess here in 2012 and took bronze in the blitz. We have a very compact team and I hope that we will all be in good shape”. The opening ceremony with the drawing of lots is taking place on March 4 at 7 pm at the Hilton Astana Hotel. On March 5 at 3 p.m, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich will launch the tournament and the pieces will start moving on the battlefields.

 

The games will begin at 2.30 p.m. IST. We will soon have the live games page published on ChessBase India.