The Indian women's team sprung into contention of an unprecedented gold medal at the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 on Saturday, pipping the mighty China by a 2.5-1.5 margin in Budapest. (More Chess News)
The spectacular victory meant that the Indian women's team stayed in joint lead in the standings and like their male compatriots, are in touching distance of the top prize at the Olympiad.
The Indian women are tied at 17 points with Kazakhstan after 10 rounds and will face Azerbaijan in the 11th and final round. Kazakhstan will take on the United States, meanwhile. For India to bag gold, they need to win their match and also hope for Kazakhstan to either lose or draw their match against the USA. In case India win and Kazakhstan win too, it will come down to a tie-breaker. You can learn more about the tie-break rules here.
On Saturday, Divya Deshmukh yet again proved to be the team’s star performer as she beat Ni Shiqun on board three, while the other three games ended in draws as the Indian women thwarted China’s challenge to post a 2.5-1.5 victory.
R Vaishali was the other Indian who deserved a lot of praise for her spirited defence in a difficult position against Guo Qi and in the end, capitalized on a tactical shot to force the draw.
On the top board, D Harika held on to her own to hold Zhu Jiner, while Vantika Agarwal matched Lu Miaoyi move for move to get an easy draw just when the middle game arrived.
With Georgia likely to post a win against overnight leaders Kazakhstan, it the Indian women are in a good position to regain sole leadership in the table and become firm favourites for the gold medal, heading into the 11th and final round.
(With PTI inputs)
