Round 1 : India drew against USA in the 1st round. India 2-2 USA. The Online Nations Cup has started. It’s a really strong team tournament with six teams participating in a double round robin format.
On the first day Team India drew against Team USA in round-one and went down fighting against Team Rest of the World (ROW) in round-two, on Monday. In the first round we drew with the help of two draws by Vishy and Hari on board One and Three.
On board Two Vidit lost a double bishop vs knight endgame against World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana. It’s one of the more difficult theoretically winning endgames to actually win, and Caruana showed how it’s done.
It was a tough game for Vidit, but Team India levelled the match on board four by an excellent win by Koneru Humpy over Anna Zatonskih. She kept pushing for initiative throughout the game and finished it off with a nice Queen skewer , thereby winning a knight and the game. Coming to the second round, the eventual result did not fully reflect how the games went.
In team tournaments it’s even more difficult to keep your nerves together than an individual game, and the shorter time control + the online format only adds to the unpredictability. On 1st board Anand saved a very difficult position from black when his opponent current World Cup winner Teimur Radjabov took the mysterious decision to repeat moves in an advantageous position.
Hari played an excellent endgame against Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouza, and when it looked like he was surely getting the full point home, Firouza found a nice trick with 50…g5 and managed to draw. In his game against Jorge Cori, Adhiban fought very hard from black, refused a draw, and overstretched and lost.
zz especially hard to evaluate the position with such less time on the clock. On board 4, Humpy got a tremendous position out of the opening against Mariya Muzychuk, but in the final moments missed a tactic which helped her opponent get a perpetual and make a draw. Interesting Position from Cori Jorge – Adhiban.
B from round 2. White managed to avoid the mate with 39.g4 in this position. India is placed 4th currently with 8 more rounds to go. Round 2 : Rest of the World won against India. Rest of the World ( ROW ) 2.5 – 1.5 India
