India enter Online Chess Olympiad final

CHENNAI: World Rapid Chess Champion Koneru Humpy paved the way for India's entry into the final of the FIDE Online Olympiad by winning her game in the Armageddon.

Humpy outclassed Poland's Monika Socko in the final game to assure India of at least one of the top two positions in the Online Olympiad. It was a dramatic comeback for India after getting outclassed by Poland in the first match 4-2.

In the second match, the Asian chess power house showed its class to humble Poland 4.5-1.5.

With the two teams registering one victory each, the game went into Armageddon with Humpy having an advantage. She had drawn against Socko in the first match, and won against her in the second.

In the first match, India went down 2-4 to Poland with its most fancied players — Viswanathan Anand and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi — losing their games against Jan-Krysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek, respectively.

Former world champion Anand, playing with white pieces, was outplayed by Duda while Gujrathi lost the game after having an advantage.

On the other hand, rising star Nihal Sarin defeated Igor Janik. The two senior Indian women players — Humpy and D. Harika — gave some respectability to the final score by drawing the games against Monika Socko and Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska, respectively.

However, Divya Deshmukh went down to Alicja Sliwicka, overlooking the basic back rank mate.

For the second match, India brought in R. Praggnanandha and Vantika Agrawal replacing Sarin and Deshmukh.

On their part, Poland brought in Grzegorz Gajewski in place of Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

India won the second match comfortably with a score of 4.5-1.5.

Humpy in her second outing won against Socko in 41 moves, while Harika outclassed Szczepkowska-Horowska.

Anand, who was humbled in the first match, took a sweet revenge against Duda in 69 moves while Gujrathi won against Gajewski. India suffered a setback when Praggnanandha got checkmated by Janik in 43 moves. However, Agrawal drew her game against Sliwicka to help India equalise the score. IANS

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