India bow out of the Online Nations Cup

With a lot of lessons and few positives, India finish fifth in first such online team event in the history of chess

Round 9: India lose to China with the score 1.5 – 2.5

It was the last day of the Round Robin part of the Online Nations Cup 2020 and Vishy Anand, who is also acting as the captain of the Indian team, decided to drop himself for both the games to ensure more exposure is given to other players and thus create an overall stronger team for future tournaments.

Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna made a draw against Wang Hao and Wei Yi on the top 2 boards, while Harika also drew against current World No. 1 Hou Yifan by putting up a staunch defence from black.

B. Adhiban, playing white, lost against Yu Yangyi. Although white got a strong outpost for his knight in the centre, it was a mistake to exchange the light squared bishops, after which Adhiban’s position slowly deteriorated. Round 10: Russia win against India with a score 2.5-1.5

In the 10th round, we had as many as 3 decisive results out of the 4 boards. Only Harikrishna had a peaceful draw in the Berlin defence against former World Championship Challenger Sergey Karjakin. There was an unusual opening in the game between V. Artemiev and Gujrathi where after white’s 9th move, only 1 piece was out of the 1st rank for either of the players. Artemiev understood the position slightly better than his opponent and soon ripped open black’s position and checkmated Gujrathi.

Adhiban built up a big advantage against Dmitry Andreikin, but he was very low on time while his opponent had plenty. Under time pressure he blundered and lost. Koneru Humpy outclassed Girya Olga and won her game in 101 moves, finishing the tournament with an individual score of 4.5/7.

We started as the 5th seeds and finished 5th. Despite that, I am sure the Indian team must be disappointed with their performance as they would have liked to finish higher than their pre-tournament standing. After a difficult start, we more or less lost our chances to qualify for the finals after the sixth round. Both Gujrathi and Adhiban, who are doing consistently well otherwise, were completely off colour in this tournament. Harikrishna produced a good performance but did not get a favourable result in most of his games. A lack of online playing experience for the Indian players played its part. There were a few positives too – Anand’s performance of 5/8 on board 1 and our rock-solid performance on the women’s board where Koneru Humpy and D. Harika were in good form and did not lose a single game.

The biggest positive was that all the players played fighting games, irrespective of their form. It was the first such online team event in the history of chess, and I am sure we will use this experience to get better.

The finals will be played between China and USA. Good luck to both the teams!

— The writer is a Chess Woman Grandmaster and former World Junior Champion 2009.