"VAN" (Sports Desk - Chennai, India - 03.08.2022) :: It’s a pleasure to play against Alexei Shirov but to beat him is special- Gukesh.
D. Gukesh played brilliantly to defeat former World Championship Challenger Alexei Shirov even as his India Team B shocked fourth seed Spain with a 2.5-1.5 score at the ongoing 44th Chess Olympiad being played at Mamallapuram, Chennai.
The India A and India C Teams also defeated Romania and Croatia with identical margins.
The Indian Women Team A also notched their fifth consecutive victory with Tania Sachdev once again bringing the winning point for her team.
They beat France 2.5-1.5 after Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli Harika and R. Vaishali had drawn their encounters.
The India Women Team ‘B’ lost to fancied Georgia with a 0-3 score while Team C held Brazil to a 2-2 draw.
This was Gukesh’s fifth victory on the trot and also the fifth victory for his India B Team.
Gukesh incidentally after this victory overtakes Vidit Gujrathi in Live ratings to be the third highest-rated player in India after Anand and Harikrishna.
Gukesh later commented: ”I got a fine position after an error from him and slowly outplayed him. It’s a pleasure to play Shirov and to beat him, is special”.
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional 9th move.
Gukesh was quick on the uptake and started pressing for victory after blunting out Shirov’s pieces.
His King personally escorted one of his pawns to the queening square with the help of his two rooks, prompting Shirov’s resignation on the 44th turn in a position that was beyond repair.
Gukesh summed up “My strategy was to provoke him and being an aggressive player, he could not resist aggressive moves, ones which I anticipated. There were a lot of checkmating patterns arising in the game.”
Adhiban B. was also in fine fettle, downing GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in a strategic masterpiece while Nihal Sarin held Anton Guijar to a draw, making the result of the ongoing Praggnanandhaa game inconsequential as the India B Team is ahead by a 2.5-0.5 sore.
In a Queen’s Gambit Declined game Tania, forced play on the queenside where her pieces controlled the board.
After winning a pawn, Tania pushed it all the way to the 6th rank.
Thereafter the queens were forcibly exchanged by Tania and she finished the game with a neat tactical stroke on the 56th turn.
Harika Dronavalli and Sophie Millet signed a truce after 40 moves in a dead equal position.
Abhijit Kunte, Coach of the Women's team commented: “I was very happy with the team's performance and I think it is a good score against France”.
CR ~ FIDE
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