44th Chess Olympiad 2022 R6: Gukesh wins six in-a-row, now World no.26, India decimates Georgia Women

Armenia (Open) and India (Women) are the sole leaders

India 3 Women defeated Australia 3-1 to take their score 9/12. USA registered their second consecutive victory to stay just a full point behind the leaders. They defeated Iran 2.5-1.5 to setup a clash with Armenia (12). Nine teams are at 10/12, including lower seeded Cuba, Peru and Kazakhstan. Cuba and Austria drew with Spain and England 2-2, Poland lost to Serbia 1.5-2.5. Peru, Kazakhstan and Australia defeated Croatia, Czech Republic and Norway. Norway has been pushed to Hall 2 in Round 7. If Carlsen plays, Hall 2 will suddenly see a surge in spectators for sure.

Open: India 2 - Armenia: 1.5-2.5

GM D Gukesh (2684) scored the sole victory for the team against GM Gabriel Sargissian (2698)

Gukesh - Sargissian

Black made a thematic error early in the opening 11...Nxf3+ 12.gxf3 opened the g-file and allowed White to have a strong pawn in the center. The Armenian also needed to prevent it from rolling down the board 17...f6 to prevent e5 would have been better. Instead 17...a5 invited more trouble 18.e5 Bc5 19.Rg5 Ba6 20.Rdg1 g6 21.Bxa6 Rxa6 22.f5 Ba7 23.e6 Kh8 24.Kb1 gxf5 25.Bxb4! and we reach the above position. It is irrelevant how Black captures the bishop as White's idea remains the same, exploit the back-rank weakness, promote the e-pawn into a queen and win the game. That's what happened.

Uzbekistan - India 1: 2-2

GM Pentala Harikrishna (2720) scored the sole win for India 1 against Uzbekistan. His strategy was simple - take the game to his opponent before he takes it to him. In other words, attack and be the person to take charge, before your opponent does that. His opponent, the reigning World Rapid champion, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2688) is well-known for his fierce attacking play. It did not work against Harikrishna as he imploded.

Abdusattorov - Harikrishna

White's first big mistake in the game was 14.dxe5 g4 just paralyzes White's position 15.Ne1 needs to be played to avoid a material loss. Anyway, the game continued 14...Nxg3 15.hxg3 dxe5 16.Rad1 g4 17.Nh2 Qg5 18.Rfe1 Kg7 19.Re2 h5 20.Ndf1 h4 and it is safe to say Black is completely winning positionally. Abdusattorov was given zero chance to regroup and retailiate.

India 3 - Lithuania: 3.5-0.5

India 3 expectedly defeated Lithuania convincingly. GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2608) conceded the sole draw against GM Titas Stremavicius (2532). This is his fifth draw of the event so far. GM Sethuraman S P (2623), GM Abhijeet Gupta (2627) and GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2612) won their respective games comfortably.

Women: India 1 - Georgia: 3-1

India 1 defeated Georgia convincingly. GM Koneru Humpy (2586) and IM Vaishali R (2442) scored the victories over GM Nana Dzagnidze (2531) and IM Lela Javakhishvili (2476), GM Harika Dronavalli (2517) and IM Tania Sachdev (2399) drew their games against GM Nino Batsiashvili (2466) and IM Salome Melia (2384).

Humpy - Dzagnidze

Black had to take the c6-pawn here. Perhaps the reason behind rejecting that idea is 26.Nxb5 Nxb5 27.Qxc4+ or 26....d5 27.Nxc7 is met with Nxb4 and things are balanced.. Sure Black might still end up down by two pawns, however it would have been better than the text. The last time Dzagnidze beat Humpy in Classical chess is June 2014. That statistics remained unchanged.

Vaishali - Javakhishvili

The knight did not have a lot of safe squares to go. 16...Nf5 or Ne8 would have been better as 16...Nb7 trapped her own bishop. Vaishali found a beautiful move 17.b4! It momentarily sacrifices the exchange, however Black has no way to save the a6-bishop. The b5-threat is looming large. For the lack of a better choice, 17...Bxa1 had to be played 18.Qxa1 Qe7 19.b5 and rest is just a matter of time. Vaishali employed some more tactical threats to end the game in her favor.

Czech Republic - India 2: 2-2

All four games ended in draws. WGM Mary Ann Gomes (2324) and WGM Divya Deshmukh (2319) escaped the jaws of defeat against WGM Karolina Pilsova (2230) and WGM Kristyna Petrova (2238).

Australia - India 3: 1-3

IM Eesha Karavade (2339) and WGM Nandhidhaa P V (2312) drew their respective games. WIM Sahithi Varshini M (2312) and WIM Vishwa Vasnawala (2305) defeated WFM Nguyen Mai Chi Phan (2139) and WFM Thu Giang Nguyen (2119) respectively in prolonged battles.

Standing (L to R): Avathanshu Bhat, Shahid Ahmed and Aditya Sur Roy

Sitting in the middle (L to R): FI Niklesh Jain, Abhyudaya Raam, Shashwat Mishra and Supriya Bhat

Sitting at the front: IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal (ChessBase India Cofounders)

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Everyday round starts at 3 p.m. IST from 29th July to 8th August 2022. The final round on 9th August starts 10 a.m. IST. Rest day is on 4th August 2022.

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