Chess Olympiad: Savitha Shri rescues India women in 2-2 draw against Kazakhstan

Coming back from an equal position, India's B Savitha Shri yet again provided the crucial blow as she embarked on her seventh victory to eke out 2-2 draw against Kazakhstan in the women’s chess Olympiad here on Thursday.

On a day when the men were held to a 2-2 draw by Azerbaijan, the apparently unstoppable Uzbek were dumped by Germany by a minimal 2.5-1.5 margin. This threw the event open yet again as Germany joined team Uzbek at the top on 14 points followed by India and Holland on 13 points apiece.

In the women’s section, China remained atop the tables with 13 points in their bag sharing the lead with Kazakhstan girls’. Not far behind is team India, a half point adrift with three rounds still to be played in the biggest biennial chess event.

While the open section is likely to be fought hard, the Chinese eves have seemed to cracked the code for this year. The point of contention could be the next round when they take on Kazakhstan but by and large it seems that the defending champion India will find it hard to defend the title.

For the Indian men, it’s a similar story especially after Thursday’s all drawn affair. Even though he tried hard, world champion D Gukesh could not really pass the efficient iron bar from his Azerbaijani opponent Muhammad Muradli and had to settle for a draw.

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

The women team almost had a scare as R Vaishali lost to Alua Nurman but it was a late onslaught by Savitha Shri that saw the team draw levels from what looked like a hopeless situation.

Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy had drawn early leaving the team in a drawn situation before Vaishali lost her game.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Bridge Desk. It is published from a syndicated feed)