Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi registered his sixth victory in as many games as the Indian team scored its sixth straight win in the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad here today.
World No. 4 Erigaisi scored over Russian-turned-Hungarian Sjugirov Sanan on what turned out to be a hard-fought day for the Indian men.
On the top board, D Gukesh played out an easy draw as black against top Hungarian Richard Rapport. Erigaisi won against Sjugirov while R Praggnanandhaa decided to sign peace with former great Peter Leko. With Vidit Gujrathi scoring a victory over Benjamin Gledura, the Indian men won by a 3-1 margin. India jumped into sole lead as China were held to a draw by a spirited Vietnamese team that scored another great 2-2 result.
In the women's section, Divya Deshmukh scored the much-needed victory over Elena Danielian to help India gain an early lead against Armenia. D Harika played out a draw with Lilit Mkrtchian on the first board while R Vaishali followed suit against Mariyam Mkrtchyan. With the team leading 2-1, Tania Sachdev played it safe from a position of strength and played out a draw on the fourth board with Anna Sargasyan to help India win 2.5-1.5.
Defending champion Ding Liren says his Indian challenger D Gukesh can be considered the favourite to win their eagerly-anticipated world chess title showdown in November, conceding that he has “dropped a lot” in the last one year. “I can see my opponent playing extremely well. Maybe he is a favourite in the World Championship match. He also has a higher rating than me,” Liren said. “I have dropped a lot since last year, but I will fight my best to try to overcome the rating difference,” he added. Gukesh won the Candidates tournament in April to become the youngest challenger to the world title at the age of 17. He turned 18 in May.
