India advanced to the semifinals of the FIDE World Team Chess Championship after defeating France in an exciting tiebreaker.
India defeats France in the World Team Chess Championship to go to the final four
The Indians triumphed in the blitz tie-break 2.5-.1.5 after the teams split the two sets of matches by a score of 3-1. With victories over Laurent Fressinet and Jules Moussard, respectively, early on Thursday, Nihal Sarin and S L Narayanan made a splash.
The top Indian player, Vidit Gujrathi, managed to draw the top French star, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in 45 moves. Meanwhile, K Sasikiran, an experienced player, was defeated by Maxime Lagarde in 55 moves. However, victories by Sarin and Narayanan were decisive.
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Both Gujrathi and Narayanan triumphed against Fressinet earlier in the first of the two bouts. The result was a convincing 3-1 victory thanks to draws for Sarin and Sasikiran.
Lagrave defeated Gujrathi and Fressinet defeated Naryanan in the second match, which saw France turn the tables. The higher-ranked rivals Moussard and Tigran Gharamian were drawn by Sarin and Sasikiran. The two victories, together with the 3-1 triumph, enabled the Frenchman to even the quarterfinal match.
A 3-1 victory over Ukraine in the opening round allowed Uzbekistan to advance to the semifinals with a 2.5-1.5 victory in the subsequent game.
Games on all four boards ended in draws during Spain and Azerbaijan’s first match, which ended in a 2-2 tie. Then, when Spain won the second game 2.5-1.5, it would face China in the semifinals, who would have defeated Poland.