Favourite India narrowly fell short of maintaining a clean slate and held the second spot after three rounds of Top Division’s Group ‘B’ in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad on Wednesday.
After a convincing 6-0 victory over Egypt, but not before Vaishali was awarded the game because her victorious rival failed to keep one of the two cameras on for the duration of the game, India suffered a mild setback with fourth seed France pulling off a 3-3 draw. In the day’s third round, India defeated Sweden 4-2.
All players fielded
On a day when India fielded all 12 players, B. Adhiban won both his games, Viswanathan Anand and Tania Sachdev contributed 1.5 points each from two games while seven others remained unbeaten. However, R. Praggnanandhaa and debutant Savitha Shri lost a game each.
Second seed Azerbaijan was surprisingly held by Shenzhen China before being stunned 2-4 by third seed Hungary, the first-day leader.
In terms of game-points, India was ahead with 13 points, followed by Hungary (11.5) and Azerbaijan (10.5).
The scores: Third round: India bt Sweden 4-2 (P. Harikrishna bt Nils Grandelius, B. Adhiban bt Erik Blomqvist, K. Humpy drew with Pia Cramling, Tania Sachdev drew with Inna Agrest, Nihal Sarin bt Milton Pantzar, B. Savitha Shri lost to Margarita Zaritovskaja); Azerbaijan lost to Hungary 2-4; Belarus bt Shenzhen China 3.5-2.5; Moldova drew with France 3-3; Slovenia drew with Egypt 3-3.
Second round: France drew with India 3-3 (Etienne Bacrot drew with Anand, Yannick Gozzoli drew with Vidit Gujrathi, Marie Sebag drew with Humpy, Pauline Guichard drew with D. Harika, Marc Andria Maurizzi bt R. Praggnanandhaa, Florence Rollot lost to R. Vaishali); Hungary bt Slovenia 3.5-2.5; Egypt lost to Moldova 2.5-3.5; Sweden bt Belarus 5.5-0.5; Shenzhen China drew with Azerbaijan 3-3.
First round: India bt Egypt 6-0 (Anand bt Ahmed Adly, Adhiban bt Adham Fawzy, Tania Sachdev bt Shahendra Wafa, Bhakti Kulkarni bt Ayah Moaataz, Praggnanandhaa bt Adham Kandil, Vaishali bt Sara Adel); Shenzhen China lost to Hungary 2-4; Azerbaijan bt Sweden 5.5-0.5; Belarus lost to France 2.5-3.5; Moldova drew with Slovenia 3-3.
Standings (after three rounds): 1. Hungary (6 match-points); 2. India (5); 3-4. France, Moldova (4 each); 5. Azerbaijan (3); 6-8. Slovenia, Sweden, Belarus (2 each), 9-10. Shenzhen China and Egypt (1 each).
