Anand leads Indian team to victory; Indian women’s team crush Venezuela

Photos Courtesy: Niklesh Jain/ ChessBase India

43rd Olympiad Batumi 2018 Open & Women

Team India posted comfortable victories in both sections to stay among the leaders with four match-points in the 43rd World Chess Olympiad underway at Batumi in Georgia.

Facing 35th seed Austria in the open section, Fifth seed India was spearheaded by Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, GM P. Hari Krishna and GM Vidit Gujarati on the first three boards.

Anand played against GM Markus Ragger, rated 2686, and went on to win in 47 moves, in an endgame involving a knight and four pawns each.

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GM Vidit Gujrathi played a flawless game against GM  Andreas Diermair on board 3.

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However, like in the first round against El Salvador, the fourth board again saw India drop half a point. Like K. Sasikiran on Monday, B. Adhiban settled for a draw against a lower-rated rival on this day.

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The Indian women’s team captain and coach Jacob Aagaard rested top player Koneru Humpy and brought in Harika Dronavalli.

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While it took Harika some time to win the game, her teammates completed the task assigned to them fast.

With this, for a second day in succession, the Indian women’s team scored full points.

Team pairings – Open

The men’s team will now take on Canada, who currently has a total of 5.5 points after two rounds.

Team pairings – Women

The Indian women, seeded fifth, will now face 23rd ranked Serbia.

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