Chess Olympiad 2022: India B men's team leapfrogs A team; Koneru Hampi concedes first draw for women

Mahabalipuram, July 31: All the three Indian men's teams ended on the winning side in round two on day two at the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Saturday (July 30). Team A defeated Moldova with 3.5-0.5 while Team B trounced Estonia with a 4-0 score. Team C, later, edged out Mexico with a 2.5-1.5 score. Meanwhile, all three Indian Women's Teams won their matches but not with the desired perfect scores.

India B leapfrogs India A

Team A rested their top player Vidit Gujrathi for this encounter and Harikrishna who rested on the opening day, started with a win. Sasikiran and S L Narayanan scored victories while Arjun Erigaisi was held to a draw by IM Andrei Macovei.

Team B, a favourite of the enthusiasts, had D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, B Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani scoring victories, with Nihal Sarin taking a rest day.

Harikrishna found himself on the other side of his favourite English Opening scoring a victory after 39 moves. A spate of exchanges early in the game had the queens also being exchanged by the 19th turn. Harikrishna snared a bishop after the players reached an ending with bishops and knights.

Arjun and Andrei Macovel battled in the Berlin Defence of the Ruy-Lopez fritted into a draw after 45 moves with each left with a rook and knight even as Arjun was a pawn less.

Karthukeyan Murali played a fine game against the Sicilian Defence of Uriel Capo Vidal. He delayed castling, shattered his opponent's castle and by the 21st move, his queen had infiltrated into enemy territory. On the 34th turn, he won a knight, prompting his opponent's resignation on the next.

India Women's A Team wins as Koneru Humpy concedes the first draw

Favourites fumbled in the second round of the Women's section with former Women World Champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine crashing to defeat against Ekaterina Atalik and India's Koneru Humpy forced to split point against much lower rated Marisa Zuriel of Argentina.

All the three Indian Women's Teams won their matches but not with the desired perfect scores. However, these were individual upsets while the top 20 seeds remained unscathed at the time of going to press.

Azerbaijan, Armenia and Romania were the teams in the top 20 rankings which whitewashed their opponents with a 4-0 score. This event is a 11 round Swiss league one where four players are fielded for each round.

R Vaishali, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni scored victories for the India A Team to score a 3.5-0.5 victory against Argentina. India B Team defeated Latvia 3.5-0.5 with Vantika Agrawal, Soumya Swaminathan and Mary Ann Gomes scoring wins and Padmini Rout conceding a draw to Nellija Maklakova. The India C Team beat Singapore with a 3-1 score with Eesha Karavade and P V Nandhidhaa scoring victories and Pratyusha Bodda and Vasnawala Vishwa being held to draws.

Marisa Zuriel opted for the volatile Benko Gambit against Humpy who skipped the popular continuation without accepting the gambit. A blocked position with little headway had Humpy settling for a draw after 44 moves with each having a queen, a rook and opposite colour bishops with an identical number of pawns.

Tania Sachdev who was stretched for more than 100 moves on day one scored a quick victory against Anapaola in a Grunfeld game which lasted 36 move after her queen, rook and knight set up a checkmating net.

P V Nandhidhaa playing for India Women C Team was involved in a Pirc Defence game against Emmanuelle Mei-En and crafted a neat victory with strongly placed pieces and an extra bishop. The game lasted 34 moves.

(With FIDE/AICF Inputs)