Uzbekistan surge ahead in Open, India women stay in hunt

Bengaluru: With four rounds remaining, hosts Uzbekistan are setting a scorching pace in the Open section of the Fide Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. They lead the standings with a perfect 14/14 match points, with five teams on 12 – defending champions India among them.

In Round 7 on Wednesday, India defeated England 2.5-1.5, with wins from R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh on Boards 1 and 4 respectively. Arjun Erigaisi drew against English veteran Michael Adams, while Nihal Sarin suffered his second successive defeat, this time to Luke McShane.

It has been a markedly different campaign from Budapest two years ago, when India’s performance screamed dominance and they wrapped up gold with a round to spare. Back then, India had Gukesh (9/10) and Arjun (10/11) on Board 1 and 3 respectively, raking in the wins.

Uzbekistan have won all seven matches so far. They followed up their 2.5-1.5 win over India by beating China 3-1 on Wednesday, with Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeating former world champion Ding Liren and Nodirbek Yakubboev beating Yu Yangyi.

Abdusattorov described the win over India as particularly significant. “After Nihal blundered, our group chat was full of messages, we were texting, screaming…it was incredible. Lucky for us… It might have been the decisive moment for us in this Olympiad,” he told Fide.

The race for gold is tighter in the women’s section. India defeated Germany 3.5-0.5, with Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh picking up wins with Black on Boards 1 and 3 respectively. China and Kazakhstan lead on 12 points, with India among the chasing teams on 10.

Away from the board, Gukesh was spotted dancing and unwinding at the Bermuda Party, an Olympiad tradition - a welcome sight amid all the talk around his form and the pressure ahead of his World Championship match in November.