It promises to be one of the hottest debates in Indian chess: who plays for India on board one at the upcoming Chess Olympiad, with at least three contenders in the race, Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. It’s a question that has even the OG of Indian chess, Viswanathan Anand, curious.

“I have to say straight out, I have no part in the board order selection for India. They don’t consult me. So I don’t know what the order will be. I don’t think Srinath (the Indian team’s non-playing captain) takes the decision unilaterally. I think he also talks to the players and figures out what they’re comfortable with. But you know, these guys, they’ll say yes to everything. They’re flexible. They’re teammates. They’ll say, ‘your decision, I’ll go with it.’ I think it’s not a contentious decision. Right now, it’s very tempting to drop Praggnanandhaa on the first board. I think that’s probably what it’s going to be like. As for the others, I know that Arjun likes to drop down. He already showed this last time, at the 2024 Olympiad, where he played board number three. And for the rest, I’m just as curious as you as to what the final composition will be,” Anand told in an interview on Saturday.

Gukesh is the reigning world champion, and the man who has won India two gold medals on board one across the last two Olympiads. Praggnanandhaa is the in-form player for India right now, having won Norway Chess and the Grand Chess Tour Finals. Arjun is India’s top-rated player, per the August 2026 rating list.

Story continues below this ad

Praggnanandhaa poses with the 2026 GCT Finals trophy. (Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour)

Arjun sits at world No. 9, with a rating of 2759; Praggnanandhaa is 12th, at 2750; Nihal Sarin is 25th, at 2718; Gukesh has slipped to 31st, at 2703, having lost 74 rating points since January 2025, when he was the newly minted world champion. Vidit Gujrathi, the final player in the Indian side, is 33rd, at 2697.

Playing board one isn’t just a matter of prestige. It also means facing every opposing nation’s top player at the Olympiad.

Anand also weighed in on the board order for the women’s Olympiad team, who are also hoping to defend their gold medal. This time, chess legend Koneru Humpy will be part of the women’s team after missing the last edition of the Olympiad. Harika Dronavalli, meanwhile, will not be part of the side, with Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri rounding out the five-player squad.

“On the women’s side, I think it’s slightly simpler, which is you have Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh really for the top two boards. I don’t know how they’ll swap it around. And then Koneru and Vantika, I think probably Humpy on third and Vantika on fourth. It seems more straightforward, but maybe they also want to juggle it a bit,” Anand added.