At the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, on August 5, the Indian Women’s A team won their seventh straight match against sixth-seeded Azerbaijan with a score of 2.5-1.5 to preserve its lone lead in the women’s section with 14 points.
However, when Humpy lost the first game, India A ran into some difficulties. Harika Dronavalli also put up a valiant fight to split the point, but Tania Sachdev and R Vaishali once again excelled by winning hard-fought matches. Vaishali performed brilliantly in a drawn situation, applying pressure to her opponent with precise positive play, and ultimately winning with joy.
Vaishali later commented, “Till the 40th turn, my game was dead equal and I considered settling for a draw. After Humpy’s loss, I had to keep pressing and interestingly, this was one position which we had worked in the camp with Boris Gelfand and I followed his suggestions to the ‘T’.”
Women’s A team demonstrated the capacity to deliver victory
Every player on the women’s A team has demonstrated the capacity to deliver a victory when the squad most needed it.”It’s encouraging to see how Harika, Vaishali, and Tania handled the strain. The players deliver with complete understanding of the circumstances “Abhijit Kunte, captain of India A, stated.
In the meantime, India A accelerated when it mattered, defeating India C with a 3-1 score in the open division. While Surya Shekhar Ganguly held Pnetala Harikrishna to a draw, Arjun Erigaisi overcame Abhijit Gupta, S L Narayanan outplayed Abhimany Puranik, and SP Sethuraman forced Vidit to split the point, Pnetala Harikrishna was defeated.
Earned seventh straight victory
After losing to Armenia in the sixth round, India B recovered to defeat Cuba with a score of 3.5-0.5 under the leadership of D Gukesh, who earned his seventh straight victory in the competition.
While Adhiban B was kept to a tie, Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa also had a good day thanks to two impressive victories.
The star-studded USA Team suffered another defeat when Armenia held them to a 2-2 tie and maintained their lead at the top of the points standings with 13 points. With 12 points each, India A and India B, the
USA, and Uzbekistan are in last place.
India B in the women’s division was defeated 1.5–2.5 by Greece.
Divya Deshmukh scored the lone victory for India while Vantika Agrawal and Soumya Swaminathan lost their encounters and Mary Ann Gomes had to stay content with a draw.
India Women C team defeated Switzerland 3-1.
