Indian Women Astound Georgia: Grandmaster R Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal led the Indian men to victory over China in the seventh round, while the women’s team defeated Georgia behind the leadership of World Championship contender D Gukesh.
The 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest saw both teams maintain their unblemished streaks as Grandmaster R Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal gave outstanding performances as the Indian women defeated Georgia and the men defeated China in the eighth round, thanks to a challenge from D Gukesh for the World Championship. Indian women defeated second-seeded Georgia 3-1, led by Vaishali and Vantika’s victories over Lela Javakhishvili and Bella Khotenashvili. Meanwhile, the men narrowly defeated China 2.5-1.5.
On a day when Divya Deshmukh was held by Nino Batsiashvili from a better position and D Harika had to settle for a draw with Nana Dzagnidze, Vantika handled the pressure of playing under time pressure brilliantly, playing nearly 20 moves in less than a minute to win her match and ensure India’s seventh consecutive victory.
With an astounding 14 points out of a possible 14, the Indian women increased their lead over their closest competitors, Poland, Kazakhstan, and France, who are all tied at 12 points apiece, to two points.
Unexpectedly, a mistake made by Polish player Olivia Kiolbasa against Ukrainian player Nataliya Buksa cost the Polish side dearly in the sixth hour of play, turning what appeared to be a guaranteed victory into a 2-2 draw.
Indian Grandmaster Gukesh led the way in the open segment.
After over five hours of play, Gukesh, who was playing the white side in a closed Sicilian, reached a drew endgame, but he didn’t lose focus on identifying the one error that the Chinese top board, Wei Yi, had committed.
Indian Women Astound Georgia:
Before their match in Singapore in November, there were many rumors that D Gukesh and Ding Liren, the two competitors in the upcoming World Championship, would square off in a final fight.
The Chinese think tank, however, made the decision to give the current world champion a break.The pundits covering the game were shocked by that already.
In the subsequent rook and pawns endgame versus Wang Yue of China on the fourth board, P Harikrishna pushed for a while before the position petered out to be equal. R Praggnanandhaa played out a short draw as black against Yangyi Yu of China.
Arjun Erigaise had earlier gone for the kill against Bu Xiangzhi, who was on guard and managed to find a beautiful piece sacrifice to force a draw by repetition.
The Indian men have completed all four rounds correctly and, like their female counterparts, are in first place with a perfect score.
With 13 points, Iran is the only side able to catch up to the leaders, while Serbia, Hungary, Armenia, and the reigning champions Uzbekistan share third place with 12 points apiece.
The ladies will play Poland in the upcoming round, while the Indian men will play Iran.
