Tania Sachdev battled long and hard to rake in that precious point which allowed her team India India A in the Women’s section to edge out Hungary with a 2.5-1.5 score. All the other three encounters had ended in draws, and the onus was on Tania, who rose brilliantly to the occasion.
A tired but happy Tania quipped, “It was a tough position, and I was aware that our two boards had ended in a draw but was not able to really evaluate Humpy’s position as my position was a tough one”.
Team Coach of Women’s Team A was upbeat about the Teams victory and commented “The Teams are well balanced, and it is very important to take one round at a time. All the games today were well fought”.
Another interesting tussle between two former World junior Girls Champions, Humpy and Hoang Thanh Trang, ended in a draw after 48 moves of a Dutch Defence.
The fourth round of the 44th Chess Olympiad was inaugurated by the Managing Director of Microsense, S Kailashanathan, by making the ceremonial first move on the Koneru Humpy’s board.
28th seed Mongolia kept up the good work and held 10th seed Kazakhstan to a draw in a minor flutter.
The 11th seeded Indian Women B Team edged past Estonia with a 2.5-1.5 score, with Vantika Agrawal bringing the winning point for her team while the other three games ended in draws. Vantika Agarwal has been in top form, scoring a superb 4/4.
The third-seeded Georgian Women’s Team proved too strong for the India C Team, with P V Nandhidhaa winning her encounter against Nino Batsiashvili, rated higher than her. Esha Karavade lost to Nana Dzagnidze, Sahithi VArshini to Lela Jaikhishvili and Pratyusha to Salome Melia.
In a Reti Opening, Ticia Gara and Harika Dronavalli belted out a few opening moves and split point on the 13th turn by repetition of moves, without a single pawn or pieces exchanged by then.
Sahithi Varshini adopting the Queen’s Indian defence against the highly experienced Lela Javakhisvili, fell into an opening trap in trying to grab a central pawn with her knight. Lela’s queen and knight immediately trained their sights on the King, and Sahithi ended up resigning on the 12th turn rather than prolonging the agony.
Complete results for round 4 can be found at the official website for the Olympiad, https://chennai2022.fide.com/women-results.
Standings after round 4 can be found at
https://chennai2022.fide.com/women-standings