Chess Olympiad 2024: Indian teams extend winning run with comfortable victories in second round

The Indian teams at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary continued their winning run as both the teams won their respective round two matches on Thursday.

Boosted by the return of Gukesh Dommaraju on the top board, the Indian team in the open section blanked Iceland 4-0 whereas the Indian women beat Czech Republic 3.5-0.5 with IM Tania Sachdev playing out the only draw of the day.

Playing on the second board, it was GM Arjun Erigaisi who struck first for the Indian open team with the white pieces. The 21-year-old from Warangal beat GM Hannes Stefansson, while Vidit Gujrathi followed it up with a win of his own against Freyr Heimisson with the black pieces on the third board.

The world championship challenger Gukesh was put under a bit of time pressure by Vignir Vatnar Stefansson on the top board, but the Indian prevailed with black pieces. In the final board, the experienced Pentala Harikrishna struggled with bad position at some point but turned things around to help India blank Iceland.

The Indian team will next take on hosts Hungary in the third round on Friday.

Indian women beat Czech Republic

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team beat Czech Republic 3.5-0.5 with the experienced GM Harika Dronavalli returning to action in place of a rested Vaishali Rameshbabu.

Dronavalli, playing on the top board, was made to work hard by Julia Movsesian. She played the longest game of the day amongst the Indians to register an outright win with the white pieces.

IM Divya Deshmukh, meanwhile, got the better of Natalie Kanakova witht the black pieces on the second board.

Vantika Agarwal, who was the only Indian not to register a win in the first round, beat Tereza Rodshtein with the white pieces on the third board, while Sachdev was held to a draw by a lower rated Martina Korenova on the final board.

The Indian women’s team will next go up against Switzerland on Friday.