Online Chess Olympiad: India crash out after losing to USA in semifinal

India has crashed out of the 2021 Online Chess Olympiad with a 2-4 loss against the United States of America (USA) in the semifinal.

The semifinal started on a very comfortable note for the Indians as they won the first round 5-1. While Viswanathan Anand won with the white pieces against the young Jeffery Xiong on the top board, the likes of Pentala Harikrishna, Harika Dronavalli and R Vaishali too clinched victories from what looked like a very difficult position on the board.

On the other hand, Koneru Humpy and Nihal Sarin drew in the women's and junior boy's board to ensure that India had a flawless start to the all-important semifinal clash.

Much like the quarterfinal clash against Ukraine, India looked in a very position in the second round against the USA before things went awry. While Harika registered her second win of the day and Humpy drew, both Viswanathan Anand and Vidit Gujarathi, who was playing his first game of the day, resigned their respective games as troubles brewed high for India.

It was all down to the young brother-sister duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali to prevent the match from going into a 3+2 Blitz tiebreak. While Vaishali managed to hold on for a draw, Praggnanandhaa lost his game as the USA won the second round 4-2.

The Blitz tiebreak turned out to be a disaster for India as only one - Harika, out of the six players managed to win. While Nihal Sarin drew his games, Harikrishna, Adhiban Baskaran, Humpy and Vaishali lost their respective games as India crash out of the 2021 Online Chess Olympiad.