jjBENGALURU: BOTH the open and women's Olympiad teams show no signs of slowing down. On Saturday, the open team were untroubled in their highly impressive dismantling of Spain. While R Praggnanandhaa is still searching for his first win of the Olympiad (he now has three draws), it doesn't really matter as long as he's able to remain rock solid on the top board.
What helped the defending champions was the timely return to form of Arjun Erigaisi on Board 2. It had been a slow start to his campaign in Samarkand but he showed his destructive capacities against Maksim Chigaev. In a positional imbalance against a lesser-rated player, you want somebody like him as he's like a bloodhound on the prowl when he senses an opening.
Against Chigaev, he did just that as he converted with the white pieces, playing a brilliancy — 26. O-O — on the way. When the 2629 rated Spaniard finally resigned, he was nine moves away from being mated.
Meanwhile, D Gukesh, who in an interview to FIDE on Friday said it was his idea to feature on Board 4, continued his winning ways, this time against the veteran Alexei Shirov. This was a typical Gukesh game, where he pushed and prodded with the white pieces before his opponent yielded in 41 moves.
The game's pivotal moment came in the middlegame after Shirov made the committal 28. Nd3. Gukesh played a pair of 'great moves' per the engine and capitalised on his opponent's error. With eight match points after four of the 11 rounds, they are ideally placed to attack the middle section of the tournament either side of the rest day on Tuesday.
Trio of brilliancies from Savitha
Divya Deshmukh, individual gold medal winner in 2024, was the first winner in the women's team but the star turn was supplied by the rapidly-improving Savitha Shri on the fourth board. Her form has been such that team captain Swayams Mishra has preferred to play her even though she was named as the reserve player.
Against Mongolia, she was electric as she finished off a winning advantage with a trio of a brilliancies in as many moves in the endgame. 40. Nf6+, 41. Rf3 and 42. h4 were all small increments but it further enhanced her position. Playing with the white pieces, her powerful rook as well as a passed c pawn meant Batkhuyag Munguntuul resigned.
Results: Open: India 2-0 Spain (R Praggnanandhaa drew with David Anton, Arjun Erigaisi bt Maksim Chigaev, Nihal Sarin drew with Jaime Santos, D Gukesh bt Alexei Shirov)
Women: India vs Mongolia (R Vaishali drew with Turmunkh Munkhzul, Divya Deshmukh bt Khishigbaatar Bayasgalan, B Savitha bt Shri Batkhuyag Munguntuul)