RB Ramesh appointed Italian men’s chess team head coach

Bengaluru: Indian Grandmaster RB Ramesh has been appointed head coach of the Italian men’s team by their national chess federation, with a contract that will run until the next Olympiad in 2026. Mentor to R Praggnanandhaa, the 48-year old Dronacharya awardee will have the job of nurturing and guiding Italian players and improving the country’s showing at next year’s Olympiad set to take place in Uzbekistan. Italy finished 43rd in the Open section in the last Olympiad and doesn’t have a player in the world’s top 100.

Indian chess’s success trajectory has, in recent years, caught the world’s attention and curiosity with a battery of young players leading the charge. Both the reigning world champion and junior world champion are Indians, the national open and women’s teams completed a gold medal sweep at the last Olympiad and three Indians feature in the top 10.

“Countries like India, China and Uzbekistan have plenty of talented young players doing well. European countries like Italy don’t have that sort of pool. Their top players are slightly older, and unlike in India, the environment isn’t as conducive for young players,” Ramesh told HT. Ramesh was coach of the men’s national team that won a bronze medal in the 2014 Olympiad, India’s first team medal in the competition.

“The Italian federation is building a facility where we can train and it is likely to be ready by September. Once the work is completed, I will be travelling to Italy to conduct training sessions.”

In 2022, the Romanian chess federation signed a collaboration with Ramesh to train players between the ages of eight and 14 over six months. For the first time in over two decades, Romania won two gold medals at the European Youth Championships in September 2023. Currently, because of political turmoil in Romania, Ramesh’s association with the federation is in limbo. “The country is going through a national crisis, so we’re waiting for things to get better. Hopefully in a couple of months, things should be alright and I can resume coaching.”