India beat USA to enter quarterfinals of World Team Chess Championship
India cruised into the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Team Chess Championship with a 3-1 victory over USA in their Pool B fifth round match on the back of victories by Vidit Gujrathi and SL Narayanan. This was India’s second win in the tournament. They will face France in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Gujrathi and Narayanan registered wins against Hans Niemann and Varuzhan Akobian respectively. While Gujrati defeated higher-ranked Nieman in 37 moves, Narayanan did the same against Akobian in 38 moves.
Nihal Sarin and SP Sethuraman drew their matches against Alexander Onischuk and Yunsky Quesada Perez respectively. Earlier, the team registered a win over Azerbaijan in the third round but lost to Uzbekistan in the fourth round. Viditi Santosh Gujarati’s win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov helped India beat Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 on Monday. Three other games were drawn. Nihal Sarin shared points with Timur Radjabov, SL Narayanan shared points with Gadir Gusenova and K Sasikiran shared points with Rauf Mamedov.
But the team suffered a 0.5–3–5 defeat against Uzbekistan in the fourth round, with only Narayanan holding out a draw against Shamsiddin Vokhidov. Gujrati was defeated by lower-ranked Nadyrbek Yakuboev while Zovkhir Sindarov defeated Sarin. Zakhongir Vakhidov defeated Abhijeet Gupta in 51 moves.
