India men outplay Hungary ‘B’; women beat Switzerland

Arjun Erigaisi

India men dropped their first point, but carried enough steam to beat Hungary ‘B' 3.5-0.5 to maintain a clean slate in the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad here.

In the open section, the hero for the Indian men was Arjun Erigaisi who played a brilliant attacking game against Peter Prohazska and ended with a checkmate after a queen sacrifice. However, Vidit Gujrathi had to settle for a quick draw against Papp Gabor and it was the first time an Indian men's player failed to notch a win in this event.

But D Gukesh outclassed Adam Kozak, while R Praggnanandhaa made most of his chances in the endgame as Tamas Banusz was gradually outplayed.

Earlier, a shock defeat for D Harika on the top board did not deter the other Indian girls as R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal scored crushing victories to ensure a 3-1 win for the team that kept them in joint lead on six match points.

Also Read: Gukesh loses to Alireza; Praggnanandhaa holds Caruana

Harika lost to recent-migrant Alexandra Kosteniuk who gave up her Russian citizenship and joined the Swiss team.

A former world women's champion Kosteniuk was in her elements and scored the full point after Harika misplayed the middle game that appeared even from the bird's eye-view.

Vaishali gave no chances to other migrant Ghazal Hakimifard who left her Iranian citizenship. It was a bit of a technical game from the white pieces as Ghazal made some unforced errors and did not quite recover.

Divya continued with her winning ways and clearly the Indian seemed to be having the time of her life on the chessboard. Divya scored a regulation win over Sofiia Hryzlova, while Vantika proved much stronger than Mariia Manko.

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