Chess Olympiad: Indian men to take on China; Women up against Georgia

Budapest: On a roll after six consecutive victories, the Indian men’s and women’s teams will take on China and Georgia respectively in the seventh round of the 45th Chess Olympiad here on Wednesday, aiming to consolidate their lead and inch closer to maiden gold medals at the prestigious event.

Past the halfway stage, the Indian teams have shown strength, controlled aggression and necessary resilience and it looks like they are pretty much on their way to script history.

In the open section, Arjun Erigaisi and World Championship challenger D Gukesh have been the mainstay for Team India with the former scoring a staggering six points out of his six games and the latter amassing 4.5 points from his five games played thus far.

The contribution of Vidit GUjrathi is also immense on the fourth board as he has scored five points from his six games while R Praggnanandhaa has scored 3.5 points from his five allotted games. P Harikrishna has two wins out of two rounds too.

The match against China will be a key contest for India as other formidable opponents like top-seeded USA and defending champions Uzbekistan are way behind in the standings on nine and 10 points respectively.

In the rounds to come, the Indian team is likely to meet Iran and Vietnam but the first major hurdle for them is China.

The match against China might also see defending champion Ding Liren take charge on the top board against Gukesh as this would be their last contest before the World Championship clash in Singapore in October end.

In the women’s section, the Indian eves face their biggest clash yet against second-seeded Georgia.

Experience may be on Georgia’s side in this contest but the likes of Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and R Vaishali have proven beyond any doubts that this young Indian team is ready to take on anyone.

Earlier in the sixth round, backed by Erigaisi and Gujrathi, the Indian men scored a 3-1 victory over local favourites Hungary.

Erigaisi scored over Russian-turned-Hungarian Sjugirov Sanan in what turned out to be a hard-fought day for the Indian men. On the top board, Gukesh played out an easy draw as black against top Hungarian Richard Rapport.

Erigaisi won in the fifth hour of play, before Praggnanandhaa decided to sign peace and drew with the great Peter Leko.

Gujrathi had to work harder but his impeccable technique ensured nothing could go wrong for him in his quest against Benjamin Gledura.

In other important matches of round six, China was held to a draw by a spirited Vietnamese team that scored another great 2-2 result.

In the Women’s section, Divya Deshmukh scored the much-needed victory over Elena Danielian to help her team gain an early lead against Armenia.

Harika played out a draw with Lilit Mkrtchian on the first board while R Vaishali followed suite against Mariyam Mkrtchyan.

With the team leading by 2-1 margin, Tania Sachdev played it safe from a position of strength and signed a draw on the fourth board with Anna Sargsyan to make sure the team wins by a 2.5-1.5 margin.

Results Round 6 open: Hungary (10) lost to India (12) 1-3 (Richard Rapport drew with D Gukesh; R Praggnanandhaa drew with Peter Leko; Sjugirov Sanan lost to Arjun Erigaise; Vidit Gujrathi beat Benjamin Gledura); China (11) drew with Vietnam (11) 2-2; Norway (9) lost to Iran (11) 1.5-2.5; USA (9) drew with Romania (9); Israel (8) lost to Uzbekistan (10) 1.5-2.5; Italy (8) lost to England (10) 1-3.

Women: India (12) beat Armenia (10) 2.5-1.5 (D Harika drew with Lilit Mkrtchian; Mariyam Mkrtchiyan drew with R Vaishali; Divya Deshmukh beat Elena Danielian; Anna Sargsyan drew with Tania Sachdev); Georgia (11) beat Mongolia (10) 2.5-1.5; Poland (11) beat China (8) 2.5-1.5; Ukraine (10) beat Serbia (8) 3-1; Vietnam (8) lost to Azerbaijan (10) 1.5-2.5; USA (10) beat Switzerland 2.5-1.5.