India expectedly posted wins in both the open and women’s section on day two of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Thursday.
The second-seeded Indian men thrashed Iceland 4-0, while the women, seeded first, defeated Czech Republic 3.5-0.5. The second round saw D. Gukesh, the World championship challenger and standout performer at the Chennai Olympiad two years ago, playing his first game of the tournament.
On the top board with black pieces, the 18-year-old Chennai lad beat Vignir Stefansson to open his campaign on the right note. Before that, Arjun Erigaisi had defeated Hannes Stefansson on the second board.
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On the third, Vidit Gujrathi beat Hilmir Heimisson. Then, quite some time later, Pendyala Harikrishna won his long game against Helgi Gretarsson to ensure the Indian men maintained their cent per cent record: they have won all their eight games so far.
In the women’s section too, India was served well on the second and third boards, by Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal, who scored wins over Natalie Kanakova and Tereza Rodshtein, respectively. Then, Dronavalli Harika, in her first game of the tournament, overcame a strong challenge from Julia Movsesian on the top board to give India its third win in the match.
Tania Sachdev was held to a draw by Martina Korenova, who has an Elo rating of 2104 against her rival’s 2386.
