Powered by the two in-form stars in World Championship challenger D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, the Indian men secured the necessary 2.5 points against Azerbaijan in the fifth round of the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday. (More Sports News)
Gukesh and Arjun seem incapable of faltering in this Olympiad so far, as they overpowered Aydin Sulemanli and Rauf Mamedov respectively with their white pieces in quick time.
Praggnanandhaa played another draw on board two but that only ensured an Indian victory irrespective of the result of Vidit Gujrathi, who later played out a draw with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
After scoring their fifth consecutive victory, the Indian men maintained a clean slate on 10 points and they were joined by Vietnam, who continued with their impressive show and downed Poland 2.5-1.5.
The other two teams that remained on course to enter the leaders’ pack were China and Hungary who seemed poised for a 2.5-1.5 victory.
In the women’s section, Grandmaster D Harika suffered a shock defeat to give Kazakhstan an early lead. Better for most of the game, Harika misplayed after many pundits believed her position to be winning against Bibisara Assaubayeva.
On the fourth board, Vantika Agarwal yet again played the anchor and won a clean game with white pieces against Alua Nurman, while Xeniya Balabayeva split the point with Divya Deshmukh.
Grandmaster R Vaishali clinched a win on the second board and with that, India claimed a 2.5-1.5 win.
Team India hence went into the lead with 10 points, with Armenia and Mongolia likely to join them.
(With PTI inputs)
