India began their campaign in Group B of the FIDE World Team Chess Championship with two draws here. After missing out on a four-game draw against hosts Israel in the first round, India also played out a 2-2 draw against Poland late on Sunday night. The Indian team with an average rating of 2611 could not beat the lower rated Israel team (2589). India’s top GM Vidit Santosh Gujrati (ELO 2662) played out a 31-move draw against Israel’s Maxim Rodstein. Nihal Sarin, SP Sethuraman and Abhijeet Gupta also had draws.
In other matches, strong team USA (average rating 2643) defeated Poland (2556). Azerbaijan (2662), the top seeded team in Group B, defeated Uzbekistan (2524) 2.5-1.5. In the second round, India’s SL Narayanan beat Mateusz Barthel but Sethuraman lost against Igor Yanic. Vidit and Sarin played out draws against Radoslav Vostasek and Kaspar Pieron respectively.
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In other matches of the second round, Azerbaijan beat America 3-1 while Uzbekistan beat Israel 2.5-1.5. There will be rapid time control in the round robin stage as per the tournament rules. The top four teams from the two groups will advance to the knockout stage.
