Chess

Coming into the match after a loss to Armenia on Saturday, India A started off the game on a winning note when Sasikiran raked in the first point against Andre Diamant in a Nimzo Indian game. Things appeared to move sedately when a couple of consecutive wrong moves by the bishops on the 42nd and 43rd turn allowed Saikiran to gain advantage and convert it to victory on the 49th turn.

India A, though, suffered a few hiccups after Humpy ended on the losing side in the first game. However, Tania Sachdev and R Vaishali once again rose to the occasion magnificently by scoring hard fought victories while Harika Dronavalli also battled hard to split the point. Vaishali played splendidly in a drawn position, pressurising her opponent with precise positive play and finally scoring a delightful victory. A hall mark of the women's A team has been the ability of every player to score a win when the team needed it most.

And yes! There is certainly a Rajinikanth, the Tamil movie hero known for many stupendous feats on the silver screen, in him. Gukesh's father is D. Rajinikanth is an ear, nose and throat surgeon. Moreover, Gukesh's favourite chess players are America's first World Chess Champion late Bobby Fischer and India's first World Chess Champion V. Anand.

It was Gukesh's fifth victory on the trot in this event. Incidentally, after this victory, he overtakes Vidit Gujrathi in live ratings to be the third highest rated player in India after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna. "I got a fine position after an error from him and slowly outplayed him. It's a pleasure to play a player of Shirov's calibre and to beat him is special," Gukesh said after the match.

After Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and R Vaishali ended with a draw in their respective encounters, Sachdev rose brilliantly to the occasion. She thrashed Zsoka Gaal to earn a decisive point as well as the match for the team.

Estonian chess player Kanep Meelis, 39, fainted while playing against Jamaican Shaw Jaden. Meelis was in a winning position when he fainted after Jaden's 39th move. He was rushed to a private hospital where his condition was said to be stable. The Estonian fainted at about 7 p.m., about four hours after the third round started.

The India A Team ranked second beat Greece with a 3-1 score, Team B trounced Switzerland 4-0 and Team C beat Iceland 3-1. The Indian women won their third-round matches to keep up perfect scores. India A defeated England 3-1, India B scored over Indonesia 3-1 and India C beat Austria 2.5-1.5. The highlight of Sunday's round was Ramesh Babu Praggnanandhaa playing for Team B and wriggling out of an inferior position, which appeared totally lost at one point against Swiss grandmaster Yannick Pelletier.

The event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Governor RN Ravi also attended the opening ceremony along with Union Sports minister Anurag Thakur. The star-studded US team-led by World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana is numbers ahead in terms of average rating with Elo 2771 while India seeded second with Elo 2696.

Carlsen is very impressed and vocal about the top two Indian teams in fray at the event, especially the young India Team 2. "Both Indian teams have a very strong and impressive line of players and I think both have a chance to be amongst the medals," he said. The World No. 1 will be in the city as part of Team Norway, which is ranked third amongst 187 registered teams in the open section at the Olympiad.

Each team will have 5 members out of which four will be fielded in each round. The Captain of the Team, in most cases non-playing, will decide the team composition. The Olympiad will be a 11 Round Swiss League event. The host countries can field two teams but India could field one additional team in both the categories as the total number of teams were odd.