MAMALLAPURAM: Indian “B” team blanked Estonia 4-0 in the second round of the Open section in the 44th Chess Olympiad here Saturday.
India’s second-seeded ‘A’ team beat Moldova 3.5-0.5 for their second straight win.
World champion Magnus Carlsen, who missed the first round, beat Georg Meier to play the starring role in third-seeded Norway’s 4-0 victory over Uruguay.
The formidable USA team struggled for the second straight day in the Open section as the top seeds could only pull off a 2.5-1.5 win over Paraguay after losing a half point against Angola little appreciated on the first day.
In the women’s section, top-seeded India ‘A’ took the lead in victory over Argentina.
Koneru Humpy, playing at first board, was held to a 44 move match by Marisa Zuriel but Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni picked up victories over Maria Campos and Maria Belen Sarquis respectively to give the team a second straight victory.
R Vaishali was involved in a battle against Maria Jose Campos at second board.
India’s “B” team was battling Latvia with Mary Ann Gomes delivering a victory over Nellija Maklakova. Padmini Rout drew against Ilze Berzina to give the team a 1.5-0.5 lead.
The third host team of the women’s section, India “C”, beat Singapore 3-1. PV Nandhidhaa and Easha Karavade won their matches. Pratyusha Bodda and Vishwa Vasnawala were held in check by Yang Hazel Liu and Kun Fang respectively.
The India B team, seen by many including world champion Magnus Carlsen and the legendary Viswanathan Anand as dark horses, won against Estonia without too much fanfare.
D Gukesh, on first board, beat Kalle Kiik while R Praggnanandhaa, on second board after resting on Friday, beat Kirill Chukavin. There were victories for the experienced B Adhiban and Raunak Sadhwani against Aleksandr Volodin and Andrei Shishkov respectively.
For India ‘A’, the winners were P Harikrishna, SL Narayanan and K Sasikiran, while fellow GM and fast-rising Arjun Erigaisi could only draw against Andrei Macovei.
In the USA-Paraguay match, world number 4 Fabiano Caruana was held by Axel Bachmann, as were Wesley So and Sam Shankland by Rami Delgado and M Ruben D Zacarias respectively.
Leinier Dominiguez Perez provided the winning run for the United States by beating Jose Fernando Cubas.
In other matches in the Open section, fourth-placed Spain and fifth-placed Poland picked up victories over Belgium. While Spain recorded a 3.5-0.5 victory, Poland took a 3-1 win.