India's top-ranked women's chess player Harika Dronavalli was handed a loss by Switzerland's Alexandra Kosteniuk but the rest of the Indian women's team soldiered on to earn a 3-1 win in the third round of the Chess Olympiad 2024. The Indian women's team are ranked seventh with six match points, while the men lead the open section with just as many match points.
Kosteniuk, a former world women's champion who gave up her Russian citizenship to join the Swiss team, scored the full point after Harika misplayed the middle game that appeared even from the bird's eye view.
R Vaishali played technical game with the pieces as Ghazal Hakimifard made unforced errors that she could not recover from. Divya Deshmukh, who recently bagged the World junior girls' championship, scored a regulation win against Sofiia Hryzlova while Vantika Agarwal got past Mariia Manko on the fourth board.
The Indian men's team were slotted against host nation Hungary's B team in the open section and it was smooth sailing as they wrapped up a 3.5-05 win. Arjun Erigaisi played a brilliant attacking game against Peter Prohazska and ended with a checkmate after a queen sacrifice. D. Gukesh, the challenger for the World Championship, earned a routine win against Adam Kozak, as did R. Praggnanandhaa vs Tamas Banusz. The fourth Indian in the fray, Vidit Gujrathi, played out a draw as black against Papp Gabor.
Round 3 - #ChessOlympiad: ���� India is going strong, defeating ���� Hungary B by 3.5-0.5. So far, the team has conceded only 0.5 points to opponents in all 12 games! ��
�� Michal Walusza pic.twitter.com/X8IKANclFp
- International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 13, 2024
The Indian men's B team in the open category and the women's team had won bronze at the 2022 edition of the Chess Olympiad.
(With inputs from PTI)