Gukesh shines as India B stun Spain
D. Gukesh, a 16-year-old Grandmaster, pulled off a stunning win over former World Championship Challenger Alexei Shirov as India ‘B’ shocked fourth seed Spain 2.5-1.5 in the 44th Chess Olympiad on Tuesday. With this win, India ‘A’ remained on top of the standings with five victories in as many rounds. India ‘A’ and India ‘C’ also posted wins against Romania and Croatia respectively with identical scorelines.
Gukesh has now overtaken Vidit Gujrathi in live ratings to be the third highest-rated player in India after Anand and Harikrishna.
Gukesh was quick on the uptake and started pressing for victory after blunting out Shirov’s pieces. His King personally escorted one of his pawns to the queening square with the help of his two rooks, prompting Shirov’s resignation on the 44th turn in a position that was beyond repair.
B. Adhiban was also in fine fettle, beating GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in a strategic masterpiece while Nihal Sarin held Anton Guijar to a draw. Praggnanandhaa suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Santos Latasa Jaime.
In the women’s section, India ‘A’ notched their fifth consecutive victory with
Tania Sachdev once again bringing the winning point for the hosts. They beat France 2.5-1.5 after Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli Harika and R. Vaishali had drawn their encounters. India ‘B’ lost to fancied Georgia with a 0-3 score, while Team ‘C’ held Brazil to a 2-2 draw.
THE RESULTS
Open: India ‘A’ 2.5 bt Romania 1.5 (Harikrishna Pentala drew with Deac Bogdan-daniel; Vidit Santosh Gujrathi drew with Lupulescu Constantin; Arjun Erigaisi bt Parligras Mirceaemilian; S.L. Narayanan drew with Jianu Vlad-cristian); India ‘B’ 2.5 bt Spain 1.5 (D. Gukesh bt Shirov Alexeil; Nihal Sarin drew Anton Guijarro David; R. Praggnanandhaa lost to Santos Latasa Jaime; B. Adhiban bt Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo); India ‘C’ 2.5 bt Chile 1.5 (Ganguly Surya Shekhar drew with Henriquez Villagra Cristobal; S.P. Sethuraman bt Morovic Fernandez Ivan; Murail Karthikeyan lost to Salinas Herrera Pablo; Puranik Abhimanyu bt Lopez Silva Hugo).
Women: India ‘A’ 2.5 bt France 1.5 (Koneru Humpy drew with Sebag Marie; Harika Dronavalli drew with Milliet Sophie; R. Vaishali drew with Savina Anastasia; Tania Sachdev bt Navrotescu Andreea); India ‘B’ 1 lost to Georgia 3 (Vantika Agrawal drew with Dzagnidze Nana; Padmini Rout drew with Batsiashvili Nino; Soumya Swaminathan lost to Javakhishvili Lela; Divya Deshmukh lost to Arabidze Meri); India ‘C’ 2 drew with Brazil 2 (Karavade Eesha drew with Alboredo Julia;nandhidhaa P V bt Librelato Kathie Goulart; Pratyusha Bodda lost to Terao Juliana Sayumi; Vishwa Vasnawala drew with Gazola Vanessa Ramos).