World Team Chess: India beat France in tiebreaker, enters last four
India defeated France in a tie-breaker to enter the semi-finals of the FIDE World Team Chess Championship. The first two matches were tied between the two teams after which a blitz tie-breaker was resorted to in which India won by a margin of 2.5-1.5. Nihal Sareen and SL Narayanan were the heroes of India’s victory, defeating Jules Moussard and Laurent Fressinet respectively. India’s top player Vidit Gujrati held French star Maxime Vachier Lagrave to a draw in 45 moves while K Sasikiran was defeated by Maxime Lagarde in 55 moves.
In such a situation, with the victory of Sarin and Narayanan, India was able to move forward. India will face Uzbekistan in the semi-finals. Uzbekistan beat Ukraine to make it to the last four. Earlier in the opening round, Gujarati beat Lagrave while Narayanan beat Fressinet. Sarin and Sasikiran drew their games and India won the match 3-1.
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France, however, won the second match by the same margin to take the match to the tiebreaker. In the second match, Lagrave defeated Gujrati while Fressinet defeated Narayanan. Sarin and Sasikiran again drew their bets. In other matches, Spain defeated Azerbaijan and China defeated Poland to enter the semi-finals where these two teams will face each other.