Nations Cup: India goes down to China, Europe

Vidit Gujrathi’s poor form continues; India plummets to the bottom of the six-team table.

Vidit Gujrathi lost to Levon Aronian and Wang Hao. - GETTY IMAGES (REPRESENTATIVE)

Vidit Gujrathi’s poor form continued and proved decisive as India lost to China and Europe 2.5-1.5 on the second day of the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup chess tournament on Wednesday.

These results pushed India, with just one match-point, to the bottom of the six-team table. After holding fancied USA in the first round, India suffered three straight losses. On Wednesday, Viswanathan Anand, P. Harikrishna and K. Humpy drew their games to maintain their unbeaten run. So far, in four rounds, three defeats for Vidit and one for his replacement, B. Adhiban, has hurt India’s progress.

After Levon Aronian punished Vidit for two successive erroneous decisions, Wang Hao cruised to a 29-move victory with the Indian making at least five moves of sub-optimal strengths.

• Fourth round: China bt India 2.5-1.5 (Ding Liren drew with Viswanathan Anand; Wang Hao bt Vidit Gujrathi; Yu Yangyi drew with P. Harikrishna; Hou Yifan drew with K. Humpy); Europe bt USA 3-1; Russia bt Rest of the World 3-1.
• Third round: Europe bt India (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew with Viswanathan Anand; Levon Aronian bt Vidit Gujrathi; Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew with P. Harikrishna; Anna Muzychuk drew with K. Humpy); China drew with Russia 2-2; USA bt Rest of the World 2.5-1.5.
• Standings (after four rounds): 1. China (7 match-points); 2-3. USA, Europe (5 each); 4. Russia (4); 5. Rest of the World (2), 6. India (1).