MAMALLAPURAM: It was business as usual for the Indian teams as all six of them won their respective clashes in Round 2 of the 44th Olympiad here on Saturday. Unlike the opening day where every Indian player won, Day 2 saw a few of them split points with their opponents.
India 1 team comprising P Harikrishna, Arjun Erigaisi, SL Narayanan and K Sasikiran got the better of Moldova 3.5-0.5. Harikrishna, Narayanan and Sasikiran won their encounters against Ivan Schitco, Vladimir Hamitevici and Iulian Baltag respectively. Arjun, with an ELO rating of 2689, was tested by Andrei Macovei (rated 2478) and both players split points after 46 moves.
The India 2-Estonia clash proved to be a mismatch. The young guns coasted to a 4-0 win. D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, B Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani looked in control of the proceedings from the word go.
Gukesh and Praggu had little trouble in registering wins over Kiik Kalle and Kirill Chukavin. Adhiban and Raunak too got onto the winners’ board after defeating Aleksandr Volodin and Andrei Shishkov.
While the first two teams had a comfortable day, India 3 had to fight it out before beating Mexico 2.5-1.5. Karthikeyan Murali was the only player to win in the round while the other three --- Surya Shekar Ganguly, SP Sethuraman, and Abhijeet Gupta --- settled for draws.
Surya split points with Hernandez Guerrero, while Abhijeet and Sethuraman had draws against Julio Cesar Rosas and Chami Ibara respectively. Karthikeyan was the first to wrap things up, needing 35 moves to defeat Uriel Capo Vidal. Talking about the turning point in his match, Karthikeyan said, “I just played according to my preparation till move 13. After he made the move --- Bishop E6, I felt he didn’t have any improvements. It was a good win.”
Humpy draws with lower-rated Marisa Zuriel: Koneru Humpy, playing in Indian women’s team 1, drew her game against Marisa Zuriel of Argentina. Humpy, rated 2586, found a tough opponent in Marisa (2174).
Humpy enjoyed an upper hand at one point but couldn’t go on to convert that. Humpy split points with her opponent after 44 moves. However, the women’s Team 1 saw R Vaishali (win over Maria Jose Campos), Tania Sachdev (beat Anapaola Borda Rodas) and Bhakti Kulkarni (defeated Maria Belen Sarquis) having a good day at the office as the team won against Argentina 3.5-0.5.
For women’s team 2, the full points arrived from Soumya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes and Vantika Agrawal in their 3.5-0.5 win over Latvia. Soumya won against Agnesa Ter-Avetisjana, while Mary tasted success over Nellija Maklakova. Vantika too logged in full points against Laura Rogule. Padmini Rout drew her encounter against Ilze Berzina in 33 moves.
The women’s team 3 scored a 3-1 win against Singapore. Eesha Karavade and PV Nandhidhaa won their games while B Pratyusha and Vishwa Vasnawala ended up with draws.
