Chess Olympiad: Praggnanandhaa pulls off unlikely win as Indian teams continue smooth sailing in Round 3

Indian teams continued their smooth sailing in Round 3 of the ongoing Chess Olympiad 2022, as all six teams from the host nation registered victories.

It was, however, once again the open section India B team which stood out as they registered their third consecutive whitewash with a 4-0 win over Switzerland. GM R Praggnanandhaa was the star as he fought back from a completely lost position to eventually win on time after his teammates D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani all registered easy wins.

On the other hand, India A team in the open section registered a 3-1 victory over Greece, thanks to wins from GM Pentala Harikrishna and GM Arjun Erigiasi. India C registered a win by the same margin against Iceland with GM SP Sethuraman and GM Abhijeet Gupta winning their respective games.

In the women's section, a pregnant Harika Dronavalli played her first match of the Olympiad for India A. She held the England top board to a draw before R Vaishali and Bhakti Kulkarni propelled India A to a 3-1 win.

India women B too registered a similar margin (3-1) victory over Indonesia with Vantika Agarwal and Soumya Swaminathan winning their respective games, but India C had to fight hard to eke out a 2.5-1.5 win over Austria even after receiving a walkover in one of the boards.