Budapest (Hangary): International Master Vantika Agrawal delivered the goods when it was badly needed, defeating Grandmaster Irina Krush to force a 2-2 draw against the United States while the Indian men stayed in sole lead after splitting points with Uzbekistan in the ninth round of the 45th Chess Olympiad currently underway here.
The Indian think-tank rested an out-of-form Grandmaster D Harika but it did not change the fortunes on the top board as R Vaishali went down to Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. On the second board, Divya Deshmukh settled for the peace result in an uneventful game with black against Carissa Yip.
On the fourth board, Tania Sachdev had almost everything going in her favour but could not find the knock-out blow when the opportunity came to share the point with Alice Lee.
It was left to Vantika to equalise the score and the young girl played with a lot of heart and commitment to beat her higher-rated opponent. For the record, Krush blundered in mutual time pressure and Vantika was remorseless in her attack.
The draw took India to 15 points, and they will now probably need two victories in the last two rounds to keep the gold medal chances alive. Kazakhstan emerged as the new sole leader in this section on 16 points, defeating Poland 2.5-1.5. Alua Nurman played the star performer for Kazakh women as she won on the fourth board against Alicja Sliwicka after the top three boards had ended in draws.
With Kazakhstan in front, India is in sole second position and they are trailed by as many as nine teams on 14 points each. In the penultimate round, Kazakhstan will face another stiff test against second seed Georgia, while the Indian women will take on a depleted China.
In the Open section, the Indian men conceded the first point with four draws against defending champions Uzbekistan. After eight straight victories, the ninth win, which would have almost sealed the gold medal, was pretty much on the cards when Arjun Erigaisi's opponent Shamsiddin Vokhidov blundered. It was a mutual oversight by both players as Arjun failed to spot a tactic which he would have normally found in a few seconds. Once Arjun slipped, Shamsiddin did not give another chance and drew rather comfortably.