Round 3: India lost to
Europe by a score of 1.5-2.5.
We, in fact, had a big chance to win this match as Anand and Humpy drew their respective games while Vidit and Hari had commanding positions.
As it happened, Vidit, playing black against Levon Aronian, missed a winning combination in the middle game due to paucity of time and entered an equal endgame.
Aronian later found a devilish trick to trap Vidit’s bishop and set his rook pawn rolling to the queening square, and won the game.
On Board 3, World No. 26 P. Harikrishna created a brilliant attack against Jan Krzysztof Duda, in a game with opposite side castles. He was cruising to victory, when time constraints compelled him to allow Duda to exchange queens and escape with a draw.
One mistake in chess can change the evaluation drastically and that is what happened here.
Round 4: China won against India by a score of 2.5-1.5.
Our fourth round match against top seeds China was the toughest so far. Vishy Anand drew against Ding Liren with black, while Hari and Humpy made two solid draws against Yu Yangyi and Hou Yifan respectively.
On Board 2, Vidit Gujrathi, who is currently battling rough form in the tournament, lost to Wang Hao after he overlooked a small tactic in the middle game. Vidit could have been rested for this round after such a shocking defeat in Round 3; on the other hand, were he fielded, he would get his first white in four games, so it was definitely a tough call to take.
The important takeaway from the games so far is to start converting an advantage to a full point.
In such a strong tournament, it is hard to get an advantage in the first place, but we did get our chances, especially in the second and third round.
Another idea is to make use of all six players in the team each day, including the two reserves, so as to keep up the energy levels of all the players. With six more rounds to go, one good day will make a huge difference to the standings, and more importantly the team morale!
Let us keep supporting our team, they are giving their best!
(The writer is a Junior World, Commonwealth Games champion and women GM)
