MAMALLAPURAM: After being on top for the first three days of the 44th Olympiad, Indian teams faced their first hurdle on Monday. India 1, in the open category, drew their encounter against France 2-2. All four matches in that round ended in draws. P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi drew with Jules Moussard and Laurent Fressinet respectively. On the other boards, Arjun Erigaisi had a quick draw against Matthieu Cornette and SL Narayanan split points with Maxime Lagarde.
However, India 2, continued to march on as they defeated Italy 3-1 and made it four wins-in-a-row. Italy, who shocked Magnus Carlsen’s Norway in the previous round, couldn’t match up to the young guns from India. In-form D Gukesh registered a 34-move win over Daniele Vocaturo. The clash looked equal but Daniele’s position got trickier with Bishop f6 on the 19th move. Gukesh was able to capitalize on it and seal the deal. Gukesh is the only player from India's open category to have won all his four matches.
