Chess Olympiad: Red-hot India 'B' team thrashes Estonia 4-0

The India 'B' team blanked Estonia 4-0 in the second round of the Open section in the 44th Chess Olympiad on Saturday, while the second-seeded 'A' team defeated Moldova 3.5-0.5 to make it two wins from as many matches.

Mamallapuram: The India 'B' team blanked Estonia 4-0 in the second round of the Open section in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Saturday. Second-seeded India 'A' team defeated Moldova 3.5-0.5 for its second straight win. World champion Magnus Carlsen, who had missed the first round, beat Georg Meier to star in third-seeded Norway's 4-0 victory over Uruguay.

The formidable USA team struggled for the second straight day in the Open section as the top seeds could only manage a 2.5-1.5 win over Paraguay after having dropped half a point against unfancied Angola on day 1. In the women's section, top-seeded India 'A' took the winning lead against Argentina. Koneru Humpy, playing on top board, was held to a draw by Marisa Zuriel in 44 moves but Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni notched up victories over Maria Campos and Maria Belen Sarquis respectively to give the team a second consecutive victory.

R Vaishali was involved in a battle against Maria Jose Campos on the second board. The India 'B' team was battling it out against Latvia with Mary Ann Gomes providing a win over Nellija Maklakova. Padmini Rout drew her game with Ilze Berzina to put the team 1.5-0.5 ahead. The third host team in the women's section -- India 'C' -- defeated Singapore 3-1. P V Nandhidhaa and Easha Karavade won their matches. Pratyusha Bodda and Vishwa Vasnawala were held to draws by Yang Hazel Liu and Kun Fang respectively.

The India B team, seen by many including world champion Magnus Carlsen and the legendary Viswanathan Anand as dark horses, won against Estonia without much fuss. D Gukesh, on the top board, beat Kalle Kiik while R Praggnanandhaa, on the second board after being rested on Friday, beat Kirill Chukavin. There were wins for the experienced B Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani against Aleksandr Volodin and Andrei Shishkov respectively.

For India 'A', the winners were P Harikrishna, S L Narayanan and K Sasikiran while fellow GM and fast-rising Arjun Erigaisi could only draw against Andrei Macovei. In the USA-Paraguay match, world No.4 Fabiano Caruana was held by Axel Bachmann as were Wesley So and Sam Shankland by Rami Delgado and M Ruben D Zacarias respectively.

Leinier Dominiguez Perez provided the winning point for USA by defeating Jose Fernando Cubas. In other matches in the Open section, fourth-ranked Spain and fifth-ranked Poland notched up victories over Belgium. While Spain recorded a 3.5-0.5 win, Poland secured a 3-1 victory. (PTI)