Chess Olympiad: Indian men outwit Hungary B; women go past Switzerland

India men dropped their first point but carried enough steam to beat Hungary ‘B’ 3.5-0.5 to maintain a clean slate in the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad here.In the open section, the hero for the Indian men was Arjun Erigaise who played a brilliant attacking game against Peter Prohazska and ended with a checkmate after a queen sacrifice.

However, Vidit Gujrathi had to settle for a quick draw against Papp Gabor and it was the first time an Indian men’s player failed to notch a win in this event. But D. Gukesh outclassed Adam Kozak, while R. Praggnanandhaa made most of his chances in the endgame as Tamas Banusz was gradually outplayed.

Earlier, a shock defeat for D. Harika on the top board did not deter the other Indian girls as R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal scored crushing victories to ensure a 3-1 victory for the team that kept them in joint lead on six match points. Harika lost to recent-migrant Alexandra Kosteniuk who gave up her Russian citizenship and joined the Swiss team.

A former world women’s champion Kosteniuk was in her elements and scored the full point after Harika misplayed the middle game that appeared even from the bird’s eye-view. Vaishali gave no chances to other migrant Ghazal Hakimifard who left her Iranian citizenship. It was a bit of a technical game from the white pieces as Ghazal made some unforced errors and did not quite recover.

Divya continued with her winning ways and clearly the Indian seemed to be having the time of her life on the chessboard. After recently winning the World junior girls’ championship, Divya scored a regulation win against Sofiia Hryzlova while on the fourth board Vantika proved much stronger than Mariia Manko.

The day also provided the first major upset in the Olympiad as fifth seed Holland were outdone by Italy 1-3 in the open section. Top Dutch star Anish Giri was on the receiving end in this encounter and that triggered their collapse. With eight rounds still to come, as many as 16 teams maintained a clean slate and shared the lead with six points apiece.

The Indian men will take on Serbia in the next round. With Alexandr Predke and Alexey Sarana on the top two boards, the Indians will likely have a tough fight on hands even though they still are favourites to win the match.

In the women’s section too, there are 16 teams sharing the lead with six points each. In the fourth round the Indian eves are pitted against France and should be able to breakthrough as they are likely to be rating favourites on all four boards.

Indian Results: Round 3: 

Women: Alexandra Kosteniuk beat D Harika; R Vaishali beat Ghazal Hakimifard; Sofiia Hryzlova lost to Divya Deshmukh; Vantika Agrawal beat Mariia Manko.

Men: D Gukesh beat Adam Kozak; Tamas Banusz lost to R Praggnanandhaa; Arjun Erigaise beat Peter Prohazska; Papp Gabor drew with Vidit Gujrathi.