Indians maintain unbeaten streak
All the six Indian teams posted victories in the third round of the 44th Chess Olympiad to maintain a clean slate. India ‘A’, ranked second, beat Greece 3-1, Team ‘B’ trounced Switzerland 4-0 and Team ‘C’ got the better of Iceland 3-1.
The highlight of Sunday was R. Praggnanandhaa’s comeback win. Playing for India ‘B’, the young Grandmaster had to wriggle out of an inferior position, which appeared totally lost at one point against Swiss grandmaster Yannick Pelletier. Pragg never gave up though as he continued to pose problems, making it difficult for his opponent to find the winning way. Pelletier, short on time, missed his way and ended on the losing side on the 67th turn.
Pragg wasn’t satisfied despite winning a point as he said, “I have played badly and this point doesn’t give me any joy and I struggled throughout this game in a bad position."
While his captain R.B. Ramesh was more pragmatic.
In the women’s, India ‘A’ defeated England 3-1, India ‘B’ scored a 3-1 win over Indonesia. Last minute entrants Indian ‘C’ edged Austria 2.5-1.5. Koneru Humpy was rested today and Harika took over on the top board for her first game at this Olympiad which is her ninth including two virtual editions.
Results: Open: India ‘A’ 3 bt Greece 1 (Harikrishna Pentala bt Mastrovasilis Dimitrios; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi drew with Theodorou Nikolaos; Arjun Erigaisi bt Mastrovasilis Athanasios; Sasikiran Krishnan drew with Ioannidis Evgenios). India ‘B’ 4 bt Switzerland 0 (D. Gukesh bt Georgiadis Nico; Nihil Sarin bt Bogner Sebastian; R. Praggnanandhaa bt Pelletier Yannick; Raunak Sadhwani bt Baenziger Fabian); India ‘C’ 3 bt Iceland 1 (Ganguly Surya Shekhar drew with Gretarsson Hjorvar Steinn; S.P. Sethuraman bt Stefansson Hannes; Abhijeet Gupta bt Kjartansson Gudmundur; Abhimanyu Puranik drew with Gretarsson Helgi Ass.
Women: India ‘A’ 3 bt England 1 (Harika Dronavalli drew with Houska Jovanka; R. Vaishali bt Toma Katarzyna; Tania Sachdev drew with Yao Lan; Bhakti Kulkarni bt Kalaiyalahan Akshaya); India ‘B’ 3 bt Indonesia 1 (Vantika Agrawal bt Sukandar Irine Kharisma; Padmini Rout drew with Aulia Medina Warda; Soumya Swaminathan bt Mariroh Fariha; Mary Ann Gomes bt Citra Dewi Ardhiani Anastasia); India ‘C’ 2.5 bt Austria 1.5 (Eesha Karavade drew with Newrkla Katharina; P.V. Nandhidhaa bt Polterauer Chiara (walkover); M. Sahithi Varshini lost to Mayrhuber Nikola; Pratyusha Bodda bt Hapala Elisabeth).