Chess Olympiad: Savitha rescues India women as men settle for draw vs Azerbaijan

India’s B Savitha Shri, who came back from level position, struck yet another crucial blow as she cruised to her seventh victory to level a 2-2 draw against Kazakhstan at the Women’s Chess Olympiad here on Thursday.

On a day when Azerbaijan held a man to a 2-2 draw, Germany dropped the seemingly unstoppable Uzbek by the slim margin of 2.5 to 1.5. This opened up the action again as Germany joined the Uzbek team with 14 points, followed by India and the Netherlands with 13 points each.

In the women’s section, China remained at the top of the table with 13 points, sharing the lead with the girls from Kazakhstan. Team India is not far behind, trailing by half a point in the biggest biennial chess event with three rounds to play.

While the open section is likely to be hard-fought, the Chinese forebears seemed to have cracked the code for this year. The contention could be in the next round when they take on Kazakhstan, but overall it looks like defending champions India will have a tough time defending the title.

It’s a similar story for Indian men, especially after Thursday’s drawn-out affair. Despite trying hard, world champion D Gukesh could not overcome the efficient iron bar of his Azerbaijani opponent Muhammad Muradli and had to settle for a draw.

On the top board, R Praggnanandhaa shared a point with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov while the remaining two games also ended in draws.

The women’s team almost got a scare as R Vaishali lost to Alua Nurman, but it was a late charge from Savitha Shri that saw the team pull level from what looked like a hopeless situation.

Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy drew early and left the team tied before Vaishali lost her game.

– The end