Chess Olympiad 2024: Indian men's, women's teams register hat-trick of wins

The Indian men's and women's teams completed a hat-trick of wins on Friday, as they remained unbeaten at the 45th Chess Olympiad at the end of the third round in Budapest, Hungary.

The Indian men's team of GM D Gukesh, GM R Praggnanandhaa and GM Arjun Erigaisi scored a 3.5-0.5 win over Hungary B.

Arjun put up an attacking show against Peter Prohazska and ended with a checkmate after a queen sacrifice.

Gukesh, the challenger for the World Championship, thumped Adam Kozak, while Praggnanandhaa defeated Tamas Banusz. The fourth Indian in the fray, Vidit Gujrathi, however, played out a draw with his black pieces against Papp Gabor.

The Indian women's team, meanwhile, defeated Switzerland 3-1 after GM Harika Dronavalli went down to former women's world champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Harika lost her match against Kosteniuk after she erred in the middle game.

However, the remaining three - GM R Vaishali, IM Divya Deshmukh and IM Vantika Agrawal registered convincing wins.

Vaishali played a technical game with the pieces and benefitted from Ghazal Hakimifard's unforced errors. Divya, who won the World Junior Girls' Championship earlier this year, scored a regulation win against Sofiia Hryzlova. Vantika, on the other hand, defeated Mariia Manko on the fourth board.

The Indian men's team will face Serbia, while the women's team face off against France in Round 4 on Saturday.