Historic bronze for India at Olympiad

Backed by some gutsy performances on all four boards, the Indian men crushed Uzbekistan 3.5-0.5 to clinch a historic bronze medal in the 41st Chess Olympiad here.

Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Padmini Rout won the gold medal on the fifth board while Grandmaster (GM) K Sasikiran took home the silver medal.

Parimarjan Negi scored over former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov on the top board, SP Sethuraman ended his bad run by defeating Anton FIlippov while Krishnan Sasikiran lived up to expectation and outplayed Marat Dzhumaev to pave the way for an Indian triumph.

On the fourth board, B Adhiban fought from a hopeless position to draw with Jahongir Vakhidov as the team ended joint second with Hungary winning the silver in a competition where 171 countires participated.

China became the first Asian country to win the gold medal in the Chess Olympiad and their success comes at a time when there was highest participation of 171 countries.

The Chinese scored a 3-1 victory over Poland in the last round, taking their tally to 19 match points out of a possible 22.

Hungary, Russia, Azerbaijan and India ended on an identical 17 points each. Finally, on a better tie-breaker score, Hungary clinched the silver and India the bronze ahead of Russia, Armenia and several other higher-rated teams.

 Russia defeated France by a minimal 2.5-1.5 margin while Azerbaijan achieved the same result against United States.

In the other important match, Hungary drew with Ukraine on all four boards. This is the best-ever finish by the Indian men in a Chess Olympiad.

“It is a wonderful performance by the Indian team. Not losing even a single game on the second, third and fourth boards was the most critical aspect for the team,” world number 26 and Indian Grandmaster (GM) P Harikrishna said.