Chess Olympiad: Indians crush Germany, women beat Uzbekistan

Reigning world champion D Gukesh led the Indian men’s team to a 2.5-1.5 victory over Germany, while the women’s team crushed Uzbekistan 3-1 in the ninth round of the 46th Samarkand Chess Olympiad.

Gukesh struggled for most of the game but came back strongly to weave a checkmate around Alexander Donchenkov’s white king.

It was this turn of events that turned the tide in favor of the Indian men who were staring at defeat against Germany.

The team has scored 15 points and remains in contention for a place on the podium with two remaining rounds of the biggest chess festival on the planet.

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan all but sealed the gold medal in the open section with a win over the top-seeded Americans.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Nodirbek Yakubboev came up with the winning stroke against Fabiano Caruana and Hans Moke Niemann, while Javokhir Sindarov’s loss on the second board against Wesley Soova didn’t matter too much.

In the women’s section, the Chinese team continued to lead the table thanks to another 3:1 victory over the Armenians.

With a total of 17 points, the Chinese now enjoy a two-point lead over nearest rivals India, who they are likely to face in the penultimate round.

In the open section, things may already be going in favor of the home Uzbek team, but the Indian team still has a chance in the women’s if they can beat China in what could be a decider.

However, Zhu Jiner leads the team on board, one can have another thing because Koneru Humpy is not at his best.

The match against Donchenkov was very important for Gukesh, who turned the tables after being on the brink of defeat.

The Indian ace is turning out to be a big fighter once again and that should help him enter the World Cup match later this year.

The next three matches were tied, with Praggnanandhaa signing peace with Vincent Keymer, Arjun sharing a point with Matthias Bluebaum and Nihal Sarin achieving the same result against Fredrik Svane.

In the women’s section, it was much easier for the Indian Eves as Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal scored easy wins while Humpy and Savitha Shri were tied.

– The end