Grandmaster R Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal put up spectacular performances as Indian ladies defeated Georgia whereas World Championship challenger D Gukesh led the lads to victory over China within the seventh spherical as each groups continued their unbeaten streak in forty fifth Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Vaishali and Vantika notched wins in opposition to Lela Javakhishvili and Bella Khotenashvili as Indian ladies thumped second seeds Georgia 3-1, whereas the lads eked out a 2.5-1.5 over China.
On a day that noticed D Harika settling for a draw with Nana Dzagnidze and Divya Deshmukh being held by Nino Batsiashvili from a greater place, it was Vantika who dealt with her time strain extraordinarily properly to play nearly 20 strikes with nearly a minute on her clock to win her sport and seal India’s seventh straight victory.
The Indian ladies took their tally to a powerful 14 factors out of a doable 14 and stretched their result in two factors over nearest rivals Poland, Kazakhstan and France who all have 12 factors apiece.
In a stunning flip of occasions a blunder by Olivia Kiolbasa of Poland in opposition to Nataliya Buksa of Ukraine value the Polish workforce dearly within the sixth hour of play as what appeared like a sure victory turned a 2-2 draw.
Within the open part, Indian Grandmaster Gukesh confirmed the way in which.
Enjoying the white aspect of a Closed Sicilian Gukesh reached a drawn endgame after practically 5 hours of play however he remained focus to search out one mistake that was made by Chinese language high board Wei Yi.
Hypothesis have been rife a few doable conflict between D Gukesh and Ding Liren – the 2 contestants within the subsequent World Championship for a closing showdown forward of their match in Singapore in November.
Nevertheless, the Chinese language assume tank determined to relaxation the reigning world champion.That was already a shock for the pundits of the sport.
R Praggnanandhaa performed out a fast draw as black in opposition to Yangyi Yu of China whereas P Harikrishna pressed for a while earlier than the place petered out to be equal within the ensuing rook and pawns endgame in opposition to Wang Yue of China on the fourth board.
Earlier Arjun Erigaise went for the kill in opposition to an alert Bu Xiangzhi and the latter discovered a pleasant piece sacrifice to power a draw by means of repetition.
With simply 4 rounds to return, the Indian males have carried out every part right so far and are sitting fairly with a one hundred pc rating like their feminine counterparts.
Iran is the one workforce in shut pursuit of the leaders on 13 factors whereas a pack of 4 groups – Serbia, Hungary, Armenia and defending champions Uzbekistan share the third spot on 12 factors every.
Within the subsequent spherical now, the Indian males will tackle Iran whereas the ladies are pitted in opposition to Poland.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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