GETTING READY FOR BIG STAGE

Working on team spirit, zoom calls and a WhatsApp group: India captain Srinath Narayanan talks to Swaroop Swaminathan about how India are approaching the Olympiad that begins Tuesday.

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CHESS has increasingly become a game for younger minds. At the upcoming Olympiad in Budapest, few teams will be as representative as that change as the Indian Open team. It will have two teens, one 21-year-old, a 29-year-old and a 38-year-old. Seeded second, this team is 'one of the favourites' for gold in the eyes of the nonplaying captain, Srinath Narayanan.

In an interview with this daily, Narayanan spoke about what the team has done over the last month, the focus on building team spirit, why they want to keep things 'relaxed and casual' and how he is juggling between accepting individual player requests but at the cost of the team. Excerpts: On prep for Olympiad Everyone has been working on their individual things. As a team, the main focus area has been on building a sense of togetherness and working on team spirit. So, we have created a WhatsApp group, having group calls, plans on spending time together at Budapest and just coming up with ways where we can spend time together.