Chess Olympiad Round 8: India miss chance to close as Gukesh draws; Savitha Shri saves women’s day

D Gukesh and Savitha Shri (Photo/FIDE) NEW DELHI: India had a smooth sailing in the open leg of the 2026 Chess Olympiad till the Round 6 match against hosts Uzbekistan in Samarkand. We all know what happened there.With three boards remaining, Nihal Sarin held the advantage against Nodirbka Yakubboev, only to trick his queen to slip the match out of India’s hands and hand Uzbekistan the lead in the title race. While Sarin’s blunder dominated the post-match discussion in chess circles, some also questioned whether world champion Dommaraju Gukesh could have pushed his own game a bit further instead of settling for a draw.Vidit Gujrathi, who briefly joined the ChessBase India comment panel on his day off, put the suggestion aside. “Gukesh is playing his own game,” he said. “If they feel there is a chance, they push to the very end. That’s exactly what India needed in their Round 8 match against Azerbaijan’s Mahammad Muradli.With the next three boards tied, Gukesh needed a win to settle the match and keep India’s title defense alive, a defense that looked bleak just a day earlier.With Germany beating Uzbekistan at the other end of the hall on Thursday, a win for Gukesh would put India within touching distance of the new leaders. He pushed for one until the position simplified into a tie that he couldn’t avoid.Gukesh, playing White in the Najdorf Sicilian, opted for the ambitious 7.Qf3 and Muradli answered exactly with 7…h6 and some active queenside maneuvers. Both sides quickly simplified early in the middle game and 16.Bxc4 Qxc4 17.Qd3 Qxd3 led to a queenless position. Gukesh won some queenside with 27.b4 and 28.b5, while Muradli locked down the center and activated his king in response.From there, the game turned into a fierce time-crunched battle.By move 35, both players had less than two minutes, but Gukesh maintained an even position. Even after a time check, the resulting rook and bishop finish proved impossible – Muradli’s active rook check, starting with 48…Rb2+, forced Gukesh’s king to repeat the sequence and neither side could advance further.The players shook hands over the draw after 56…Rb2+, a resilient display of defense by Muradli against sustained pressure from the world champion.Uzbekistan and Germany are currently leading the rankings with 14 points. The chasing pack at 13 includes China, Azerbaijan, the United States, India, Armenia and France, all hoping that there will be further dips at the top to pounce on.

Savitha Shri saves Indian women’s day again

Savitha Shri’s dominant run on board 4 continued on Thursday as she extended her winning streak to seven as the Indian women held Kazakhstan to a 2-2 draw. It was again Savitha who came to her rescue after the team fell behind as Alua Nurman defeated Vaishali Rameshbaba on deck 2.With Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy already drawing their matches against Meruert Kamaliden and Bibisara Assaubayev, India needed a win on board 4 to stay in contention for the title and Savitha did just that.It was a tough battle against Elnaz Kaliakhmet, played through the Italian (Giuoco Piano) game, which turned into a long strategic game. After quiet opening moves, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6, both sides maneuvered patiently before the tension rose in the middle game.Savith’s unusual 11.Ra4 and the rook maneuvers that followed showed a willingness to play the long game and the position tilted in her favor after 25.Nf5 gave White a more comfortable structure. Queens folded soon after, leading to a challenging rook and pawn endgame.Both players were deep in time trouble and Savith’s technique held up under pressure. Moves like 52.Rd5+ and 54.dxe4 practically kept her ahead, while 59.Rxd3 eased the position into a winning end with king and rook. Kaliakhmet resigned after 62.Ra2.READ ALSO: Dad quit Singapore job, pawned jewelery to fund chess dream: Savitha Shri’s Olympics-bound storyIndia remain in the chasing pack in the women’s section as well, where China leads with 15 points, Kazakhstan and Mongolia with 14 points and India with 13. With three rounds remaining, the battle for both titles is far from over. If anything, I feel like it’s just getting started.