Indian men to take on China; women up against Georgia

Budapest: Ona roll after six consecutive victories, the Indian men’s and women’s teams will take on China and Georgia respectively in the seventh round of the 45th Chess Olympiad here on Wednesday, aiming to consolidate their lead and inch closer to maiden gold medals at the prestigious event.

Past the halfway stage, the Indian teams have shown strength, controlled aggression and necessary resilience and it looks like they are pretty much on their way to script history.

In the open section, Arjun Erigaisi and World Championship challenger D Gukesh have been the mainstay for Team India with the former scoring a staggering six points out of his six games and the latter amassing 4.5 points from his five games played thus far.

The contribution of Vidit Gujrathi is also immense on the fourth board as he has scored five points from his six games while R Praggnanandhaa has scored 3.5 points from his five allotted games. P Harikrishna has two wins out of two rounds too.

The match against China will be a key contest for India as other formidable opponents like top-seeded USA and defending champions Uzbekistan are way behind in the standings on nine and 10 points respectively.

In the rounds to come, the Indian team is likely to meet Iran and Vietnam but the first major hurdle for them is China. The match against China might also see defending champion Ding Liren take charge on the top board against Gukesh as this would be their last contest before the World Championship clash in Singapore in October end.

In the women’s section, the Indian eves face their biggest clash yet against second-seeded Georgia. Experience may be on Georgia’s side in this contest but the likes of Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and R Vaishali have proven beyond any doubts that this young Indian team is ready to take on anyone.(PTI)

Results Round 6 open

Hungary (10) lost to India (12) 1-3 (Richard Rapport drew with D Gukesh; R Praggnanandhaa drew with Peter Leko; Sjugirov Sanan lost to Arjun Erigaise; Vidit Gujrathi beat Benjamin Gledura); China (11) drew with Vietnam (11) 2-2; Norway (9) lost to Iran (11) 1.5-2.5; USA (9) drew with Romania (9); Israel (8) lost to Uzbekistan (10) 1.5-2.5; Italy (8) lost to England (10) 1-3. Women: India (12) beat Armenia (10) 2.5-1.5 (D Harika drew with Lilit Mkrtchian; Mariyam Mkrtchiyan drew with R Vaishali; Divya Deshmukh beat Elena Danielian; Anna Sargsyan drew with Tania Sachdev); Georgia (11) beat Mongolia (10) 2.5-1.5; Poland (11) beat China (8) 2.5-1.5; Ukraine (10) beat Serbia (8) 3-1; Vietnam (8) lost to Azerbaijan (10) 1.5-2.5; USA (10) beat Switzerland 2.5-1.5.