Chess Olympiad: Indian Women Defeat Switzerland 3-1 (Photo credit: Twitter @Aditya Sur Roy)
A shock loss for D Harika on the top board didn’t deter the other young Indian women as R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agarwal scored big wins to ensure a 3-1 victory over Switzerland that kept them in joint lead on six match points in the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Friday.
Harika lost to Alexandra Kosteniuk who gave up her Russian citizenship and joined the Swiss team some time back. A former world women’s champion Kosteniuk was in her elements and scored the full point after Harika misplayed the middle game that appeared even from the bird’s eye view.
Vaishali gave no chances to other migrant Ghazal Hakimifard who left her Iranian citizenship. It was a bit of a technical game from the white pieces as Ghazal made some unforced errors and did not quite recover.
Divya Deshmukh continued with her winning ways and the Indian seemed to be having the time of her life on the chessboard.
After winning the World junior girls’ Championship, Divya scored a regulation victory over Sofia Hryzlova while on the fourth board Vantika Agrawal proved much stronger than Mariia Manko.
In the open section too the Indian men were poised for an easy win against the Hungary ‘B’ team. The hero of the day was Arjun Erigaisi who played a brilliant attacking game against Peter Prohazska and ended with a checkmate after a queen sacrifice.
Vidit Gujrathi played out a quick draw as black against Papp Gabor, Gukesh enjoyed a better position against Adam Kozak, while Praggnanandhaa was pushing for a victory over Tamas Banusz.
Indian Results round 3 women: Alexandra Kosteniuk beat D Harika; R Vaishali beat Ghazal Hakimifard; Sofiia Hryzlova lost to Divya Deshmukh; Vantika Agrawal beat Mariia Manko.
Men: D Gukesh vs Adam Kozak; Tamas Banusz vs R Praggnanandhaa; Arjun Erigaise beat Peter Prohazska; Papp Gabor drew with Vidit Gujrathi.