Answers.Body: <p>Normally the host nation is entitled to  a second team. Following the <a href="https://chess24.com/en/read/news/fide-bans-russia-from-holding-chess-events" rel="noreferrer">absence of Russia and Belarus due to FIDE ban</a>, <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-olympiad-in-chennai-the-usa-is-favourite-china-and-russia-do-not-take-part" rel="noreferrer">China due to pandemic lockdowns</a>, and <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/2022-fide-chess-olympiad-inauguration" rel="noreferrer">last-minute Pakistan pullout</a> due to political conflict with India, the number of teams was odd, so FIDE rules allow another team to India.</p>
  <p>According to FIDE regulations:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Odd Number of Participating Teams</p>
  <p>2.1 The organising federation shall be entitled to enter a second team (&quot;B&quot; team). If there is an odd number of participating teams the organising federation has the right to enter a third team (&quot;C&quot; team).</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/OlympiadPairingRules2022" rel="noreferrer">https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/OlympiadPairingRules2022</a></p>
  <p>I have not found the FIDE Council rationale for this, but I guess this is an extra reward to the host nation (who has to fund the event), and is more exciting than a bye. (If you know, please post as an answer)</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-09T18:53:19.027Z
Answers.Text: I've updated the answer to hopefully include all teams absent.
Answers.UserDisplayName: qwr
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Answers.CreationDate: 2022-08-10T01:44:35.797Z
Answers.Text: Suppose the extra team to balance is not the host, then 1. who else can organise a team to get there soon enough, and 2. how do you decide which country gets to send that team instead? Having the host provide the extra team is just logistically more reasonable.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Nij
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Answers.Text: @Nij swiss style tournaments usually implement a bye in that case. you could also just return to 1 team instead of 3 but the host probably wouldn't like this.
Answers.UserDisplayName: qwr
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Answers.CreationDate: 2023-02-01T17:02:30.217Z
Answers.Text: The rationale is, that the organizer country is entitled to have two teams. If the number of teams are odd, therefore the organizer does not have to drop the second team. Simply add a third team.
Answers.UserDisplayName: djnavas
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Answers.LastEditDate: 2022-08-09T19:06:22.147Z
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Body: <p>The 2022 Chess Olympiad is hosted in Chennai, India. Why does India get to field three teams while most nations get the usual one team per Open and Women's sections?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-09T15:38:21.850Z
Comments.Text: In all fairness, there's a LOT more people (thus more players?) in India than in all those other countries (especially with China out of the running)...
Comments.UserDisplayName: Darrel Hoffman
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-09T16:23:25.070Z
Comments.Text: Interestingly India 2 team (amazing performance)  did better than India 1 team!
Comments.UserDisplayName: Akavall
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-09T18:28:02.423Z
Comments.Text: @DarrelHoffman if they scaled by population, already dominant nations (China, India, US) would fill up the leaderboards over strong nations like Armenia and Uzbekistan. And I doubt smaller countries would like that.
Comments.UserDisplayName: qwr
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-09T19:35:20.830Z
Comments.Text: So, kind of like the Olympics then?  There are generally speaking a lot more athletes from larger population countries than smaller ones.  (Obviously varies by sport, but there's a reason the highest medal counts consistently go to countries with a lot more competitors.)  Forcing the same number of players per country would just encourage strong-but-not-top-tier players to move to other countries with smaller populations where they'd have a better chance of getting into international competitions.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Darrel Hoffman
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-08-10T01:03:49.240Z
Comments.Text: yep, that's true that top competitors are left out in favor of having more variety in nations. but that seems to be the tradition in Olympiad style events (including the International Math Olympiad and International Olympiad in Informatics)
Comments.UserDisplayName: qwr
Tags: <rules><team><chess-olympiad>
Title: Why does India get three teams for Open and Women's sections in the 2022 Chess Olympiad?
ThreadText: # Why does India get three teams for Open and Women's sections in the 2022 Chess Olympiad?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-08-09)
  
  The 2022 Chess Olympiad is hosted in Chennai, India. Why does India get to field three teams while most nations get the usual one team per Open and Women's sections?
  
  **Tags:** rules, team, chess-olympiad
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: In all fairness, there's a LOT more people (thus more players?) in India than in all those other countries (especially with China out of the running)...  
  > **username_2**: Interestingly India 2 team (amazing performance)  did better than India 1 team!  
  > **username_0**: @DarrelHoffman if they scaled by population, already dominant nations (China, India, US) would fill up the leaderboards over strong nations like Armenia and Uzbekistan. And I doubt smaller countries would like that.  
  > **username_1**: So, kind of like the Olympics then?  There are generally speaking a lot more athletes from larger population countries than smaller ones.  (Obviously varies by sport, but there's a reason the highest medal counts consistently go to countries with a lot more competitors.)  Forcing the same number of players per country would just encourage strong-but-not-top-tier players to move to other countries with smaller populations where they'd have a better chance of getting into international competitions.  
  > **username_0**: yep, that's true that top competitors are left out in favor of having more variety in nations. but that seems to be the tradition in Olympiad style events (including the International Math Olympiad and International Olympiad in Informatics)  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2022-08-09. Score: 38 | Accepted answer
  
  Normally the host nation is entitled to a second team. Following the [absence of Russia and Belarus due to FIDE ban](https://chess24.com/en/read/news/fide-bans-russia-from-holding-chess-events), [China due to pandemic lockdowns](https://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-olympiad-in-chennai-the-usa-is-favourite-china-and-russia-do-not-take-part), and [last-minute Pakistan pullout](https://www.chess.com/news/view/2022-fide-chess-olympiad-inauguration) due to political conflict with India, the number of teams was odd, so FIDE rules allow another team to India.
  
  According to FIDE regulations:
  
  > Odd Number of Participating Teams
  >
  > 2.1 The organising federation shall be entitled to enter a second team ("B" team). If there is an odd number of participating teams the organising federation has the right to enter a third team ("C" team).
  
  <https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/OlympiadPairingRules2022>
  
  I have not found the FIDE Council rationale for this, but I guess this is an extra reward to the host nation (who has to fund the event), and is more exciting than a bye. (If you know, please post as an answer)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: I've updated the answer to hopefully include all teams absent.  
  > **username_3**: Suppose the extra team to balance is not the host, then 1. who else can organise a team to get there soon enough, and 2. how do you decide which country gets to send that team instead? Having the host provide the extra team is just logistically more reasonable.  
  > **username_0**: @username_3 swiss style tournaments usually implement a bye in that case. you could also just return to 1 team instead of 3 but the host probably wouldn't like this.  
  > **username_4**: The rationale is, that the organizer country is entitled to have two teams. If the number of teams are odd, therefore the organizer does not have to drop the second team. Simply add a third team.  
  
  ---
  
  