THE Philippines hopes to ride on the recent success of its athletes in the international stage when it takes part in the 44th World Chess Olympiad — the biggest over-the-board competitions since the pandemic — in Chennai, India starting Friday.

With GM Eugene Torre, widely considered as the country’s most recognizable player now taking an active role as a coach, and GM Wesley So, once the country’s brightest chess star now playing for the United States, the 10-man Filipino team arrived in Chennai’s neighboring seaside town of Mahabalipuram late Wednesday and joined around 2,000 players from 188 countries during a colorful opening ceremony the following day.

The 52nd-seeded Philippine men’s team will be bannered by United States-based GMs Mark Paragua and Rogelio Barcenilla Jr., GM Darwin Laylo, GM John Paul Gomez and IM Paolo Bersamina.

The women’s team, which is seeded higher at No. 39, is composed of WGM Janelle Mae Frayna, WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda, WIM Marie Antoinette San Diego, WIM Kylen Joy Mordido and WFM Shania Mae Mendoza.

Torre is the coach of the men’s team, while GM Jayson Gonzales is the coach of the women’s squad.

In the first round, the Filipinos will take on No. 146 seed Oman.

Paragua, Gomez, Laylo and Bersamina will play in the opening round, with Barcenilla taking a day off.

In the women’s side, the Philippines will battle No. 119 Guam with Fronda, Mendoza, San Diego and Mordido getting opening-day assignments and Frayna getting a break.

The Filipinos are seeking to improve their 37th-place finish in the men’s division and 67th in the women’s section in the last over-the-board competition of the biennial event in Batumi, Georgia four years ago.

This is the first major international chess competition for the country under President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.

A total of 187 teams from 186 countries are seeing action in the men’s division while 162 teams from 160 nations are playing in the women’s division in this 11-round, 12-day tournament.

With perennial title contednwrs Russia and China not in the list of participants, the USA, India-1, and Norway are the top three seeds.

The champion in the men;s section will capture the Hamilton-Russell Cup, while the victor in the women’s side will get the Vera Menchik Cup.

The best combined results of a nation in both the sections will decide the winner of the Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, and M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of the state of Tamilnadu, were preseny during the formal opening ceremony held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai

The prestigious compettion — India’s first Olympiad — is already being compared to the FIFA World Cup.

The 2022 Olympiad was originally scheduled to be held in Russia but that changed with the invasion of Ukraine.

A virtual who’s who of world chess, including world champion Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So and Anish Giri — are all gathered now.

“It’s like Brazil hosting the football World Cup. It just feels right,” Indian GM Pravin Thipsay, who has played seven Olympiads between 1982 and 2002, was quoted as saying.

The last time Chennai hosted a blue-ribbom chess event was in 2013, when former world champion Viswanathan Anand took on Carlsen in the World Chess Championship.