India At Chess Olympiad, Round 7: Gukesh Helps Men's Team Beat China In Open Section Thriller

India beat China in the seventh round of the open section of the Chess Olympiad 2024 at the SYMA Sports and Conference Centre in Budapest on Wednesday, September 18. (More Sports News)

Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh came out victorious against Wei Yi, who played on Board 1, after China rested world champion Ding Liren. 

While on the other hand, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandha and Pentala Harikrishna drew all their respective matches.

Praggnanandha played out a draw against Yangyi Yu, while Harikrishna pushed for a while but petered out to be equal in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame. 

Arjun, however, went for the kill against Bu Xiangzi, but the latter found a nice piece sacrifice to force a draw through repetition.

The 45th Chess Olympiad's format is played in a Swiss system. 

According to the rules, each round sees four players from each team take on four from the other, with a spot for the reserved player who can be used as a substitute in between the rounds.

The four games are played at the same time on four boards in replaced colours, with one game point allotted for a win and half game point for a draw.

Scores from each game are added to determine which team takes the round. If a team wins the round, they are awarded two points, regardless of the game point margin, while a draw earns only a match point.