CHENNAI: India had to dig deep before overcoming the Ukraine challenge and make the semifinals of the FIDE online Olympiad on Monday evening. The first two matches saw India win the opener 4-2 before their opponents hit back --- clinching the second 3.5-2.5.
The encounter moved into the blitz tiebreaker where the Viswanathan Anand-led side comprehensively won 5-1. India’s semifinal opponent will be the winner of United States-Kazakhstan encounter which happens late on Monday.
It all was going India’s way in the initial period of play as they won the opening match with ease. The keenly-awaited clash between Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk ended in a draw. The two seasoned players looked solid during their 72-move encounter before splitting the points. Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali too drew their matches against Kirill Shevchenko, Lulija Osmak and Mariia Berdnyk respectively.
However, India’s victories in that match came from the ever-dependable Nihal Sarin and Dronavalli Harika. Nihal, who won his fifth game on the trot in the event, defeated Platon Galperin. Platon faced technical difficulties and joined the game with just two minutes left on his clock. But Nihal was solid as usual to win the match in 36 moves. Harika too was in terrific form as she defeated Nataliya Buksa in 36 moves as India looked in control of things.
Ukraine turned things around in Game Two. R Praggnanandhaa and Harika won their matches against Platon Galperin and Natalia Zhukova. The Anand-Ivanchuk clash ended in a draw, but Ukraine stayed in the contest with Kirill Shevchenko and Lulija Osmak beating Vidit Gujrathi and Humpy respectively. The Osmak-Humpy clash saw both players fighting tooth and nail before the former won it in 114 moves. Vaishali too went down to Mariia Berdnyk.
The subsequent blitz tie-breaker proved to be a one-way traffic as Harika, B Adhiban, Nihal and Vaishali registered victories over Nataliya Buksa, Shevchenko, Platon and Mariia. Vidit and Humpy drew against Ivanchuk and Lulija. Harika, who won all her matches in the day, revealed she came unprepared for the blitz clash.
“I wasn’t prepared for the blitz match because I thought we would win the second encounter. But the situation changed quickly and we lost. I headed to the blitz match unprepared. I played a random opening but didn’t want to give anything away to my opponent and it worked,” Harika told TOI.
