Mumbai: Defending champion India defeated Ukraine in the quarter-finals of the 2021 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, quelling their opponents in a thrilling tie-break blitz round to reach the semi-finals.
India, who had topped their preliminary league group, took Ukraine in the two-round quarter-final. They claimed the first round of rapid chess matches 4-2. Harika Dronavalli and Nihal Sarin won their games in the six-board encounter. Anand drew with fellow veteran Vesselin Ivanchuk. Ukraine No. 2 Kirill Shevchenko held Pentala Harikrishna. Koneru Humpy too could not get the better of Lulija Osmak, a player ranked 2302 as compared to 2483 of Humpy. But the two wins by Harika and Nihal were good enough to seal the round in India’s favour.
India, who shared the title with Russia in 2020, had to win the second round to progress to the next stage and they looked on course leading 2-0 when Ukraine came back strongly. Ivanchuk held Anand. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi lost to Kirill Shevchenko with black pieces. Things took a dramatic turn as Harika won her game against Natalia Zhukova and R Praggnanandhaa won against Platon Galperin but R Vaishali lost to Mariia Berdnyk and then Humpy lost to Lulija Osmak from a nearly equal position under time pressure. Nonetheless, Ukraine won the round 3.5-2.5 and thus forced a tie-break round of blitz games.
In the tie break blitz round, India rested Anand and put former national champion B Adhiban on the second board against Kirill Shevchenko. Nahil Sarin came in for Praggananandhaa. Moreover, The inspired changes proved successful as India won the round 1-5 to seal a place in the semi-final.
Vidit held Ivanchuk and Adhiban defeated Shevchenko with white pieces. But Humpy was held by Osmak but Harika, found some brilliant combinations. She defeated Nataliya Buksa, her third win in the quarter-final. India dominated the bottom two boards in blitz. Nihal overcame Platon Galperin. Vaishali defeated Variia Berdnyk to wrap a superb victory for India.
In the semi-final of the 2021 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, India will take on the winner of the match between Kazakhstan and the United States.
Most of the Indian players were accessing the chess,com server from a hotel in Chennai. Harikrishna, Humpy, and Harika were taking part from their respective homes. Then they were elated by the result. Once again, The Indians had managed to put in across a dangerous opponent in the dramatic encounter.
