Mamallapuram: India's top player Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali led the women's 'A' team to a 3-1 win over a strong Georgian side in the sixth round of the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Wednesday. In the Open section, teenaged Grandmaster D Gukesh's splendid run continued as he notched up a sixth consecutive win, but India 'B' went down 1.5-2.5 to former champions Armenia.
He put it across Gabriel Sargissian but could not prevent the team from going down as B Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani suffered defeats at the hands of Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Robert Hovhannisyan respectively. Nihal Sarin drew his match against Hrant Melkumyan.
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It was the formidable India 'B' team's first loss in the competition. The India 'C' team recorded an emphatic 3.5-0.5 win over Lithuania as S P Sethuraman, Abhijeet Gupta and Abhimanyu Puranik beat their opponents and the experienced Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew against Titas Stremavicius.
Humpy defeated Nana Dzagnidze in 42 moves, Vaishali scored a win over Lela Javakhshvilli, while D Harika and Tania Sachdev settled for draws against Nino Batsiashvili and Salome Melia in the clash between the top-seeded India 'A' and No.3 seeds Georgia.
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In the Open event, top-ranked USA defeated Iran 2.5-1.5 riding on Fabiano Caruana's win over Parham Maghsoodloo, while the games on the other three boards ended in draws. Meanwhile, fourth-ranked Spain settled for a 2-2 draw against 32nd-ranked Cuba.
Australia shocked the Magnus Carlsen-led Norway, ranked No.3, securing a 2.5-1.5 win as the European nation continued to struggle.
PTI
