Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali, who were playing on top boards for the Indian teams in the open section and the women’s section claimed wins. (PHOTO: FIDE / Michal Walusza)
The Indian chess team signalled its intent to win a gold medal in the open section of the ongoing Chess Olympiad after defeating a hapless Morocco team 4-0 in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday. The Indian women’s team also won 3.5-0.5 against the Jamaican team with Vaishali — playing on the top board for India in the absence of Harika Dronavalli — winning her game. Tania Sachdev and Divya Deshmukh also claimed wins while Vantika Agarwal was held to a draw by Raehanna Brown.
With the 18-year-old world championship contender Gukesh choosing to sit the first round out, Praggnanandhaa played on the top board for India. And Praggnanandhaa responded by putting his opponent Mohamed Tissir — at 47 years of age more than twice the age of Praggnanandhaa — under heavy duress from the 18th move itself.
Tissir, an International Master with a rating of 2355 and currently ranked 2639 in the world among active players, was overmatched. His peak rating of 2490 came in October 2006, when Praggnanandhaa would have been one-year-old.
Playing with black pieces, the Moroccan was 50 minutes behind on the clock by the 20th move. But at least his king was safely ensconced in the h8 square. Or so he must have thought. Soon, the air around his king started to constrict and things got claustrophobic as pieces retreated behind to ward off Praggnanandhaa’s attacks from the g and h files. By the 26th move, the Indian teenager had forced the time on his clock to just 37 seconds. He eventually lost on time.
On the other boards, the rest of the Indian team also responded to Praggnanandhaa’s win with victories: Arjun Erigaisi taking down Elbilia Jacques, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi beating Ouakhir Mehdi Pierre and Harikrishna Pentala defeating Moayad Anas to hand India the perfect start.
The Indian team is seeded second in the open section behind Team USA, who are missing the services of their top-ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura.
Playing against Panama in their opening round, United States of America won 3 ½ to ½ with Wesley So being held to a draw on the top board, after Fabiano Caruana chose to rest the opener.
Other top players like Ding Liren (China) and Magnus Carlsen (Norway) also opted to rest in the first round.
Vaishali’s win over Adani Clarke
Vaishali’s win with black pieces over Woman FIDE Master Adani Clarke saw a fascinating run of play where there was a massacre for the control of the e4 square in the middle game. Both players lost one pawn, one bishop and one knight each — in the space of six moves — in trying to control that square.
Despite the Vaishali’s obvious rating advantage over the Jamaican, the Indian player only held a slight advantage on the eval bar in the middle game. That changed when Clarke blundered a knight in the 22nd move. There were further blunders on the 26th and 28th moves from the Jamaican as Vaishali finally claimed victory with 29 moves.
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