Mamallapuram, Aug 9: The India ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section while the India ‘A’ women’s side also finished third in the 44th Chess Olympiad here on Tuesday.
India ‘B’ defeated Germany 3-1 in their final round match to end at third position.
Uzbekistan sprung a surprise by bagging the gold medal with a 2-1 win over the Netherlands ahead of a strong Armenian team, which beat Spain 2.5-1.5 in the final round, in the Open section.
Uzbekistan and Armenian secured 19 match points each while India scored 18.
The top-seeded India ‘A’ women’s team crashed to a 1-3 defeat in the 11th and final round to USA to see it’s gold medal hopes evaporate. The Koneru Humpy-led team finished third. It was India’s first-ever medal at the Olympiad in the women’s section.
India ‘A’, USA and Kazakhstan tied for third place but the home team took bronze.
War-torn Ukraine won an emotional gold in the women’s event, pipping Georgia to the top prize.
In the Open section, Uzbekistan beat the Netherlands in the final round thanks to Jakhongir Vakhidov’s win on board 4. They edged out Armenia on the basis of a better tie-break score.
India ‘A’ took fourth spot. It was the second bronze medal for India in the Open section in the Olympiad.
B Adhiban added to his medal collection while it was the first for young stars D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani.
In the women’s section, top player Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali drew their games against Gulrukhba Tokhirjonova and Irina Krush respectively. The defeats for Tania Sachdev at the hands of Carissa Yip and Bhakthi Kulkarni to Tatev Abrahamyan hurt the India ‘A’ team’s chances of a gold medal.
Besides medals in the team events, it rained medals for India in individual section with as many as seven Indians winning medals.
Gukesh and Sarin won gold on top and second board respectively while Arjun Erigaisi secured silver on third board. R Praggnanandhaa (third board), R Vaishali (third board), Tania Sachdev (third board) and Divya Deshmukh (reserve board) claimed individual bronze medals. (PTI)
