Samarkand: The Indian men’s side delivered a 3-1 victory over an all-Grandmaster team from Italy, with Nihal Sarin coming good yet again and reigning world champion D Gukesh returning to winning ways at the 46th Chess Olympiad here on Friday.
Meanwhile, the women’s squad crashed through the defences of Greece with a 3.5-0.5 victory to remain in pole position after the third round.
At the top of the table, R Praggnanandhaa was not able to squeeze out a victory for the second day running against Lorenzo Lodici, but the teammates Nihal Sarin and Gukesh ensured that an emphatic victory against Italy was pretty much on the cards.
The adage about life coming full circle came true after the second round of the Olympiad here, where Gukesh was held to a draw by Indonesian Satria Duta Cahaya. He now finds himself sitting on 2699.5 points after a career-high peak of 2794 achieved in October 2024.
This will definitely give additional confidence to Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, who is set to challenge Gukesh for the world title in November in Geneva, Switzerland.
Gukesh can, and will hope, to make a strong comeback to remain afloat in the 2700 elite club by the time the Olympiad comes to its conclusion.
In the past two Olympiads in 2022 and 2024, Gukesh had clinched the gold medal for best performance on the top board for India, but this time the think tank thought otherwise, possibly going by the current form, and relegated him to the fourth board.
The first-round victory over Thailand came with a 3-1 margin, and in the second, the Indian team could only manage a minimal 2.5-1.5 victory over Indonesia.
The third-round clash is against a stronger Italy that boasts Grandmasters on the first four boards.
The Indian eves, meanwhile, have done better though their opposition was comparatively weaker. The first round was a clean 4-0 victory over the Dominican Republic, while in the second they cruised to a 3.5-0.5 win against Finland.
The Indian eves will take on Greece in the third round.
Each team has five players, and the team can pick any four to play. There will be 11 rounds in all, with each victory by the team worth two match points. In case of a tied result after the final round, the game points will be taken into account to determine the winner.
Pairings Round 3 open: India vs Italy (R Praggnanandhaa vs Lorenzo Lodici; Arjun Erigaisi vs Luca Moroni Jr; Nihal Sarin vs Francesco Sonis; D Gukesh vs Sabino Brunello).
Women: India vs Greece (Koneru Humpy vs Stavroula Tsolakidou; Divya Deshmukh vs Anastasia Avramidou; Vantika Agrawal vs Ekaterini Pavlidou; B Savitha Shri vs Antonia Christodoulaki).
