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Three of the four Indian Open team players are in line for gold and silver medals for the individual performance.
With the Indian Open and Women's teams creating a storm with their performances at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, it is going to rain medals of different hues -- including Gold -- on them on Sunday evening.
If all things go as usual, for the first time in the country's chess history, the second seeded Indian Open team is all set to win the Gold medal.
In the last and final round to be played on Sunday, the Indian Open team will take on 26th seed Slovenia.
'The boys have been told not to take it easy but fight it out,' Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, head of the Indian delegation, said.
The Indian Open team leads the table with 19 points, followed by China with 17 points.
Similarly, the top seeded Indian women's team is in contention for the Gold medal with 17 points, sharing the top spot with Kazakhstan. The Indian women have a better tie breaker score.
The team medals apart, three of the four Indian Open team players are in line for gold and silver medals for the individual performance.
World Championship Title Challenger GM D Gukesh is in line for the gold medal for the top board. India's top rated player GM Arjun Erigaisi is in contention for gold on the third board.
The other Indian GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is ranked third for the fourth board.
In the case of the Indian women's team International Masters Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal are in contention for the gold for the third and fourth boards.
Interestingly, India is also expected to retain the Gaprindashvili Cup that was won at the 44th Chess Olympiad held in Chennai in 2022.
At the end of the 10th round the Indian contingent -- Open and women's -- lead other nations for the Cup followed by China and the United States of America, as per chess-results.com (external link).
Named after the Georgian chess Grandmaster and former women's World chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, the Cup is given to the nation's teams that shows the combined supremacy in the Open and Women's sections in the Olympiad.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com