India is on the verge of securing its maiden gold in the open category as Grandmaster and World Championship challenger D Gukesh defeated Fabiano Caruana in the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.
It was a Catalan opening wherein Gukesh got the complications running in his favour in the later stages of the middle game after grabbing a pawn.
Under pressure, Caruana lost another second pawn to let Gukesh enter a winning endgame.
Earlier, R Praggananandhaa lost to Wesley, so to give the American team an early lead but the Indian men were in no danger anytime as Arjun Erigaisi was always in command against USA’s Lenier Dominguez Perez.
Arjun held a winning position while Vidit Gujrathi played a rock-solid game against Levon Aronian.
The results for the women’s team were equally the same, beating China by 2.5-1.5.
Divya Deshmukh proved to be the team’s star performer as she defeated Ni Shiqun, while the other three games ended in draws as the Indian eves thwarted China’s challenge.
R Vaishali was the other Indian who deserved a lot of praise for her spirited defence in a difficult position against Guo Qi and in the end capitalised on a tactical shot to force the draw.
The results for the women’s team were equal.
On the top board, D Harika held on to her own to hold Zhu Jiner, while Vantika Agarwal matched Lu Miaoyi to get an easy draw just when the middle game arrived.
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