Indian teams continued their winning streak in the open section of the 44th Chess Olympiad, with all three claiming easy victories over their respective opponents here on Sunday.
While second-placed India ‘A’ defeated Greece 3-1 after victories by GMs P Harikrishna and Arjun Erigaisi, India ‘B’ defeated Switzerland 4-0 and the third team defeated Iceland 3-1 .
Vidit S Gujrathi, playing for India A on board two, settled for a draw against GM Nikolaos Theodorou while K Sasikiran was held by Evgenios Ioannidis.
After defeating Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, Harikrishna said his opponent put up a good resistance and towards the end he had a good combination of moves.
Meeting the other Indian team depends on the pairing. Our focus is on playing the games and not the teams,” he said.
As the Indian teams are doing well so far, they may face each other in the competition.
The top seeded Americans underscored their authority with a 3-1 win over 24th seeded Georgia. Although Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Dominiguez Perez failed to record wins, Lev Aronian and Sam Shakland got the job done by defeating Mikheil Mchedlishvili and Tamaz Gelashvili respectively.
In the women’s event, the three Indian teams were victorious for the third day in a row. The ‘A’ team rested top man Koneru Humpy but edged England 3-1 thanks to victories from R Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni.
Dronavalli Harika was used for the first time in this Olympiad and this is the ninth consecutive time she has played for India, not to mention the two virtual Olympiads where India won a gold and a bronze medal in the mixed version.
Harika, 31, is in the advanced stages of her first pregnancy and competed against Jovanka Houska from England. She couldn’t force a win on top board.
The “B” team defeated Indonesia 3-1 with Vantika Agrawal and Soumya Swaminathan defeating Irine Kharisma Sukandar and Fariha Mariroh respectively. Padmini Rout and Mary Ann Gomes had to settle for draws against their opponents.
The third host team won 2.5-1.5 against Austria thanks to wins by PV Nandhidhaa and Pratyusha Bodda. Varshini Sahiti lost to Nikola Mayrhuber and Esha Karavade drew against Katharina Newrkla.
WGM Nandhidhaa became the first player to pick up a point thanks to a free game against the ailing Chiara Polterauer.
This is my first Olympiad and I’m playing in my hometown of Chennai, reason enough to give myself extra energy. Ratings and seedings don’t matter in my opinion. Even our team has a chance and we are ready to do our best,” said Nadhidhaa.
In other results, 28th-seeded Mongolia notched a surprise 3-1 win over the USA for seventh place in the women’s tournament, while second-seeded Ukraine defeated Slovakia 4-0.
Results of Indian games:
Open: India ‘A’ beat Greece 3-1 (P Harikrishna def. Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, Vidit Gujrathi draw v. Nikolaos Theodorou, Arjun Erigaisi def. Athansios Mastovasilis, K Sasikiran draw v. Evegenios Ioannidis).
India ‘B’ beat Switzerland 4-0 (D Gukesh beat Nico Georgiadis,
Nihal Sarin beat Sebastian Bogner, R Praggnanandhaa beat Yannick Pelletier, Raunak Sadhwani beat Fabian Baenziger).
India ‘C’ defeated Iceland 3-1 (Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn, SP Sethurman beat Hannes Stefansson, Abhijeet Gupta beat Gumundur Kjartsson, Abhimanyu Puranik drew Gretarsson Helgi).
Women: India beat England 3-1 (D Harika drew Jovanka Houska, R Vaishali beat Toma Katarzhnya, Tania Sachdev drew Yao Lan, Bhakti Kulkarni beat Akshaya Kalaiyalahan).
India ‘B’ defeated Indonesia 3-1 (Vantika Agrawal def. Irine Kharisma Sukandar, Padmini Rout drew Aulia Medina Warda, Soumya Swaminathan def. Fariha Mariroh, Mary Ann Gomes drew Anastasia Citra Dewi Ardhiani).
India ‘C’ beat Austria 2.5-1.5 (Easha Karavade drew Katharina Newrkia, PV Nandhidhaa defeated Chiara Poltrauder, M Varshini Sahiti lost to Nikola Mayrhuber, Pratyusha Bodda defeated Hapala Elisabeth).
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