By Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai, May 3 (IANS): With an average ELO rating of 2,683, the India Team 1 for the 44th Chess Olympiad to be held in Mahabalipuram ranks fourth in the chess world.

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) on Monday announced the four teams - two for the open category and two for the women's category- for the upcoming July-August Olympiad.

The Indian teams has been selected based on the players' ELO ratings.

The top most rated player and former World Champion V. Anand has decided not to play in the Olympiad.

The India Team 1 consists of the country's players rated 2-5 (Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (ELO 2,723), Pentala Harikrishna (2,705), Arjun Erigaisi (2,675), S.L.Narayanan (2,662) and the seventh ranked K. Sasikiran (2,651).

The sixth ranked player D.Gukesh (2,659) figures in the India Team 2.

Each month, the International Chess Federation or FIDE ranks the chess playing countries based on the average rating of their top ten players.

Based on this criteria, the top six ranking nations are: the US (2,730), Russia (2,711), China (2,698), India (2,673), Ukraine (2,667), and Azerbaijan (2,655).

Owing to the military action against Ukraine, FIDE has banned Russia and Belarus from competing in the event. In the individual tournaments of the FIDE World Championship cycle, players from Russia and Belarus are allowed to participate under the FIDE flag.

Based on the rating averages of their top five players, USA tops the table with 2,766 and is followed by China (2,739), Azerbaijan (2,700), India Team 1 (2,683) and Ukraine (2,681).

While two Indian teams will be participating in the Open category, it is not known which are the countries that have confirmed participation in the Olympiad and the players who would represent them.

The Indian Team 2 with (Nihal Sarin 2,656, D. Gukesh 2,659, B. Adhiban 2,616, R. Praggananandha 2,642 and Sadhwani Raunak 2,619) averaged a rating of 2,636.