India plays out draws in first two rounds at FIDE World Team Chess Championship

After games on all four boards in the match against host Israel in round one ended in draws, India drew 2-2 against Poland late on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO: Vidit Gujrathi of India playing against Nikolas Theodorou of Greece (not in the photo) during their third round of the 44th Chess Olympiad held at Mamallapuram near Chennai on July 31, 2022. B. Jothi Ramalingam | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

India opened their campaign in the FIDE World Team Chess Championship here with two draws in Group B.

After games on all four boards in the match against host Israel in round one ended in draws, India drew 2-2 against Poland late on Sunday.

The Indian team, with an average rating of 2611, could not break through against the lower-rated Israel (2589).

India’s top player Grandmaster Vidit S Gujrathi (Elo 2662) shared honours with his Israeli opponent Maxim Rodshtein in 31 moves. The others -- Nihal Sarin, S. P. Sethuraman and Abhijeet Gupta -- too followed suit. In other matches, a strong US team (average rating 2643) defeated Poland (2556), with draws on the top three boards before Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian won on the fourth board.

Azerbaijan (2662), the highest-rated team in Group B, defeated Uzbekistan (2524) 2.5-1.5.

In India’s second round, S L Narayanan’s win over Mateusz Bartel was cancelled out by Sethuraman’s defeat at the hands of Igor Janik.

Gujrathi and Sarin drew their games against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Kacper Piorun respectively.

In other second round matches, Azerbaijan beat USA 3-1 while Uzbekistan defeated Israel 2.5-1.5. As per the tournament regulations, there is a rapid time control in the round-robin phase. The top four teams from the two groups will advance to the knockout stage.