Koneru Humpy wins, India on course

The entire India A Team rose to the occasion with R Vaishali defeating higher-rated Lela Javakhisvili while Tania and Harika held fort to defeat third seed Georgia 3-1.

D Gukesh was once again on fire as he carved his blistering sixth victory on the trot, but Nihal Sarin drew on the second board while Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani ended on the losing side. India B, the most sought-after Team at the Olympiad thus lost to Armenia with a 1.5-2.5 score.

India C Team thrashed Lithuania 3.5-1.5 while India A Team was leading 1.5-0.5 late tonight.

Humpy said, "I am not thinking of medals at this stage of the tournament as we still have to play many more tough teams like Ukraine and so on. Our team spirit is high and whenever in need of a victory, always any one player from the team would shine."

Humpy wielding Whites today, later admitted that she was completely surprised by the choice of Benoni defence by Nana and played a couple of dubious moves in the Opening. Nana got a pleasant position but it soon turned ugly with some precise positional play by Humpy who got her act together.

Humpy candidly admitted, "I am playing after two and a half years and really struggled in the first few. Today too my game was long as usual” she quipped wryly games to get my rhythm. Only yesterday I was happy with my form."

Abhijit Kunte, the Team coach commented, "It is a very important win against Georgia, more so as we head into the rest day tomorrow. Initially, there was some pressure as we were short on time, but by the middlegame it was fine."

Vaishali and Lela Javakhishvili battled in the Spanish Opening with the former on the aggressive side. Play was focussed on the queen-side for the most part and Vaishali sacrificed a rook for a bishop on the 17th turn and netted two pieces for it. She pocketed a point after 36 moves.

It was expected to be a classic battle between a former prodigy and a recent one, a duel which every enthusiast was looking for as Pentala Harikrishna took on Nodirbek Abdusattorov in one of the oldest Openings in Chess -the Ruy Lopez.

However, this was one encounter which was totally dominated by Harikrishna, a sort of masterclass in the Art of Attacking, against a player half his age. Playing with black pieces was in an aggressive mood with the Black pieces.

Play focussed entirely on the King-side with Harikrishna advancing his pawns and deploying his pieces strategically, swarming around the King, just waiting to swoop down at the slightest opportunity.

Abdusattorov’s King could not find an escape route nor the resources to blunt the attack and ended up losing on the 47th turn.