Chess
Chess Olympiad: Tania, Vantika shine in women's section as India taste defeats for first time
While the India A team in open section were held to a draw by France, the India C team in both section were handed their first loses of the tournament.
Tania Sachdev (Source: chesscom/Twitter)
After a smooth sailing so far, all the Indian teams in Chess Olympiad 2022 hit their first major roadblock on Monday. While the India A team in open section were held to a draw by France, the India C team in both section were handed their first loses of the tournament.
The India A team consisting of Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigiasi and SL Narayanan were held to a 2-2 draw after all their four games against France failed to produce a convinving result.
The India C team of Surya Ganguly, Sethuraman P, Abhijeet Gupta and Karthikeyan Murali, on the other hand, went down 1.5-2.5 to Spain after Gupta lost his game David Guijjaro, while the others were held to a draw.
However, the young India B continued their winning run for four-matches in a row, but that too did not come without dropping of points. While D Gukesh and Nihal Sarin registered victories against Italy, the young R Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani held on to draws to win the tie 3-1.
Tania Sachdev, Vantika Agarwal to the rescue
In the women's section, Tania Sachdev emerged as the rescuer for India A as she won on demand to help her team register 2.5-1.5 win over Hungary after Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R Vaishali drew their respective games.
Similarly Vantika Agarwal's win proved to be decisive for India B as they beat Estonia 2.5-1.5 after the other three players drew their games.
Much like the open section, the India C team in women's section too fell to their first defeat of the Olympiad as they went down 1-3 to a much more stronger Georgia. The only win for India came in form of V Nandhidhaa.
