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Will anyone be able to stop team PSPB?

by Niklesh Jain - 06/02/2020

The National Team Championships 2020 will begin from the 7th of February 2020in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with some of the best chess players in Indian chess taking part. In the open section team PSPB is the big favourite with Adhiban, Karthikeyan, Abhijeet Gupta, Deep Sengupta and Lalith Babu. The Railways A & B teams, Air India and AAI will be the big competitors for PSPB. Things are much more exciting in the women's section as PSPB and Air India will indulge in a full blooded fight. PSPB team has in its ranks Soumya Swaminathan, Padmini Rout, Mary Ann Gomes, Rakshitta Ravi and Nisha Mohota. Air India has an equally strong team with Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni, Vijayalakshmi, Meenakshi and Aarthie Ramaswamy. A curtain raiser.

The star studded PSPB team

The National team Championships will begin from the 7th to the 12th of February 2020 in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The PSPB team like every year is extremely strong and the favourites to win the title

With a rating average of 2605, the PSPB team would give any top team even at the Olympiad a run for their money!

The biggest challenge for team PSPB will come from Railways Sports Promotion Board - A team

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy on the top board can beat any GM on a given day | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The Airport Authority of India is quite a strong team!

Abhimanyu Puranik is closing in on the 2600 mark and is just three Elo points away. He will be trying to cross that milestone in this event | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Team Air India is not a team to be taken lightly!

Railways B team with two GMs and three IMs will also be in the medal contention 


Women's Event

The Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) was the defending champion and will be looking to make a repeat performance this year! | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Along with four experienced players - Soumya, Padmini, Mary and Nisha, the team also has a young talent - Rakshitta Ravi 

Soumya Swaminathan will hold fort on board one for team PSPB | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Team Air India with Tania, Viji, Bhakti, Meenakshi and Aarthie are very well poised to give PSPB a tough fight

Will Air India be able to beat PSPB to the gold medal | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Tamil Nadu team has an extremely strong team with all the young talents of the state

R. Vaishali will be looking to cross the 2400 mark here | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Team AAI has a rating average of 2249 

The tournament schedule

Prize Money:

The prize money of the National Team Championships is pretty low. However, the main aim of the event is not just prize money. There is a lot of prestige at stake and the players employed with different organizations (PSPB, Railways, AAI and states) will be looking to make sure that they win a medal.

Open team 

No.TeamRtgAvg
1Petroleum SPB2605
2Railways SPB A2490
3Airports Authority of India2472
4Air India SPB2461
5Railways SPB B2442
6Odisha A2267
7Delhi B2183
8Telangana2102
9Gujarat A2100
10LIC2086
11Tamil Nadu A2074
12Gujarat D2023
13Bihar B1980
14Bihar A1873
15Madhya Pradesh1830
16Defence Accounts SCB1828
17Maharashtra A1817
18All Rajputana C1763
19Odisha B1762
20Maharashtra B1741
21Delhi A1739
22Gujarat B1704
23All Rajputana A1703
24Services SCB1698
25Uttar Pradesh1690
26Bihar C1677
27Himachal Pradesh A1663
28Gujarat C1609
29Maharashtra C1595
30Haryana A1536
31AI Reserve Bank SCC1527
32Tamil Nadu B1469
33Andhra Pradesh A1465
34All Rajputana B1380
35Haryana B1293
36Himachal Pradesh B1165
37Andhra Pradesh B1131
38Jammu & Kashmir1000

Women Starting list

No.TeamRtgAvg
1Petroleum SPB2336
2Air India SCB2332
3Tamil Nadu B2259
4Airports Authority of India2249
5Tamil Nadu A1865
6Telangana1796
7LIC1752
8Kerala1669
9Gujarat A1636
10Odisha1514
11Bihar A1495
12Delhi1482
13Gujarat D1292
14Gujarat C1188
15Gujarat B1177
16Himachal Pradesh A1063
17Himachal Pradesh B1000