Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh caused the biggest upset of the Round V at the 44th Chess Olympiad by defeating former World Championship challenger Alexei Shirov as India B stunned Spain 2.5-1.5 in Mamallapuram on Tuesday.
Exhibiting brilliant gameplay, Gukesh not only extended his unbeaten run at the event but also helped India B register an impressive victory against fourth-seeded Spain— the team’s fifth successive win in the open section.
It was Gukesh’s fifth victory on the trot in this event. “I got a fine position after an error from Shirov and slowly outplayed him. It’s a pleasure to play a player of Shirov’s calibre and to beat him,” Gukesh said after the match.
“My strategy was to provoke him and being an aggressive player, he could not resist aggressive moves. There were a lot of checkmating patterns later on in the game,” Gukesh added. Adhiban B was also in fine fettle, defeating GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in a strategic master piece while Nihal Sarin held Anton Guijar to a draw.
India A and India C notched up identical wins against Romania and Chile, respectively, in other Open section matches. Among women, India A registered their fifth consecutive victory with Tania Sachdev once again bringing the winning point for her team. They beat France 2.5- 1.5 after Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli Harika and R Vaishali had drawn their encounters. Indian women’s B team, on the other hand, lost to fancied Georgia with a 0-3 score while Team C held Brazil to a 2-2 draw. Harika and Sophie Millet signed a truce after 40 moves in a dead equal position.