Koneru Humpy scored a thumping victory over Nana Dzagnidze, one of the top players in the Women’s circuit, in the 6th round of the Women’s section of the 44th Chess Olympiad. The entire India A Team rose to the occasion with R Vaishali defeating higher-rated Lela Javakhisvili while Tania and Harika held fort to defeat third seed Georgia 3-1.
The Indian Women A Team has shot into sole lead with six victories to total 12 points. Romania, the other overnight joint leader with India and Georgia, was held to a 2-2 draw by Ukraine. India B Team was held to a 2-2 draw by 23rd ranked Czech Republic. India C defeated Australia 3-1 with Varshini Sahithi and Vishwa Vasnawala scoring victories and Eesha Karavade and P V Nandhidhaa drawing their encounters.
Azerbaijan defeated Kazakhstan with a 3-1 score, while Poland whitewashed Serbia 4-0.
Humpy, while pleased with the proceedings, said: “I am not thinking of medals at this stage of the tournament as we still have to play many more tough teams like Ukraine and so on. Our team spirit is high and whenever in need of a victory, always any one player from the team would shine.” Humpy wielding Whites today later admitted that she was completely surprised by choice of the Benoni defence by Nana and played a couple of dubious moves in the Opening. Nana got a pleasant position, but it soon turned ugly with some precise positional play by Humpy, who got her act together.
Humpy candidly admitted: “I am playing after two and a half years and really struggled in the first few. Today too, my game was long as usual”, she quipped wryly, games to get my rhythm. Only yesterday I was happy with my form.”
Abhijit Kunte, the Team coach commented: “ It is a very important win against Georgia, more so as we head into the rest day tomorrow. Initially, there was some pressure as we were short on time but by the middlegame, it was fine.”
Vaishali and Lela Javakhishvili battled in the Spanish Opening, with the former on the aggressive side. Play was focused on the queen-side for the most part and Vaishali sacrificed a rook for a bishop on the 17th turn and netted two pieces for it. She pocketed a point after 36 moves.
Harika played out an easy draw with Nino Batsiashvili on the second board. The Indian kept things under check right from the word go with black pieces, and routine exchange of pieces led to a drawn rook and pawns endgame where neither player had any hesitation in signing the peace treaty. Women.
Complete results for round 6 can be found at the official website for the Olympiad, https://chennai2022.fide.com/women-results.
Standings after round 6 can be found at
https://chennai2022.fide.com/women-standings