Grandmaster and World Championship challenger D Gukesh put it across Fabiano Caruana of the US to raise visions of a maiden gold medal for the Indian men in the 45th Chess Olympiad here.

Set to play the next World Championship match in Singapore in November, Gukesh played another tough game showcasing his steely nerves against the top seeded teams and also beating higher ranked Caruana.

While the technicalities remained and the pairings for the next round was still awaited, it seems almost sure that India have won the Olympiad gold for the first time ever and that too with one round to spare.

It was a Catalan opening wherein Gukesh got the complications running in his favour in the later stages of the middle game after grabbing a pawn. Under pressure, Caruana crumbled like a cookie and soon after lost a second pawn to let Gukesh enter a winning endgame.

Earlier, R Praggananandhaa went down fighting against Wesley So to give the American team an early lead but the Indian men were in no danger anytime as Arjun
Erigaise was always in command against Lenier Dominguez Perez.

Arjun won after over five hours of play, while Vidit Gujrathi played a rock-solid game against Levon Aronian.

Women beat China

Divya Deshmukh yet again proved to be the team’s star performer as she defeated Ni Shiqun on board three, while the other three games ended in draws as the Indian eves thwarted China’s challenge to post a 2.5-1.5 victory.

R Vaishali put up a spirited defense in a difficult position against Guo Qi and in the end capitalized on a tactical shot to force the draw.

On the top board, D Harika held on to her own to hold Zhu Jiner, while Vantika Agarwal matched Lu Miaoyi move for move to get an easy draw just when the middle game arrived.

With Georgia likely to post a victory against overnight leader Kazakhstan, it seemed that the Indian eves were likely to regain the top position.

Earlier, IM Vantika had delivered the goods when it was badly needed, defeating GM Irina Krush to force a 2-2 draw against the US.

Harika was rested against the US and on the top board R Vaishali went down to Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova.

On the second board, Divya had settled for the peace result in an uneventful game with black against Carissa Yip.

On the fourth board, Tania Sachdev had almost everything going in her favour but could not find the knock-out blow when the opportunity came to share the point with Alice Lee.

It was left to Vantika to equalise the score.