Olympiad: India A, India B power on

India A and India B did their medal chances in the Open section no harm with impressive victories in the seventh round of the 44th Chess Olympiad on Friday. India A defeated India C 3-1 – the first time in this event that two Indian teams were pitted against each other – while India B continued to exert their dominance, beating the Cubans 3.5-0.5.

India A are currently fourth in the standings and India B are third. Armenia and Uzbekistan occupy the top two spots.

Victories by Arjun Erigaisi and SL Narayanan over Abhijeet Gupta and Abhimanyu Puranik respectively proved essential in India A’s victory. The experienced duo of Pentala Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi played out draws.

Erigaisi, 18, is considered to be in the same bracket as the teenagers grabbing attention for India B. He remains unbeaten in the tournament, having earned four victories and three draws. There wasn’t much to choose between Erigaisi and Gupta on Friday until the latter’s decision to initiate an exchange of rooks on his 31st move. It was a blunder that Gupta could never recover from, clearing the path for Erigaisi to complete victory after 46 moves.

India A captain Srinath Narayanan, however, isn’t thinking about their medal hopes just yet.

“I think it’s a bit early to think about the standings. That comes into play only in the last two rounds. It is nice to get this win right after the rest day against a pretty strong team. It was a convincing performance,” Srinath told reporters after the match.

After a win in the opening round, Gujrathi has had five successive draws. While his performance rating in the event has been below his usual standards, Srinath defended the 27-year-old from Nashik.

“In a team tournament, every player has a different role. It might look like Vidit hasn’t won a game in some time, but he is playing his role to perfection. It’s almost impossible to beat him right now. Sometimes, some players don’t get an opportunity (to push for a win). Everyone has played their roles to perfection so far in the opportunities they have got,” he said.

India B’s victory was once again spearheaded by the irrepressible D Gukesh. The 16-year-old made it seven wins out of seven, beating Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera in 46 moves. That R Praggnanandhaa returned to winning ways should also serve as a confidence booster for the B team. The Chennai boy has admittedly not been at his best so far. Even when he defeated Switzerland’s Yannick Pelletier in the second round, he was willing to concede that his game quality was below par.

In the women’s section, India A extended their perfect record with a seventh straight win. Koneru Humpy suffered a loss to Azerbaijan’s Gunay Mammadzada, but it’s been customary for someone to come to the fore. On Friday, it was R Vaishali and Tania Sachdev who again bailed the hosts out.

Vaishali’s game against Govhar Beydullayeva seemed to be heading to a draw even though the Indian was a pawn and knight up after her 38th move. Given that Humpy lost, Vaishali knew she had to push for a victory though. The work that she had done with mentor Boris Gelfand in the lead-up to the event also came in handy.

“I would like to thank Boris Gelfand. We had worked on the exact same position in the end game during our training camp. I remembered it and executed the plan nicely,” Vaishali said.

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