World Team Chess Championship 2017: Indian men, women defeat Egypt in fifth round

Khanty-Mansiysk: The Indian men and women team scored expected victories against lowest ranked Egypt in the World teams’ chess championship. The Indian men surprisingly dropped 1.5 points despite being overwhelming rating favourites on all four boards but in the end the third victory on the trot was sweet taking them on to six points out of a possible nine. Grandmaster B Adhiban yet again proved his true mettle as he crushed Fawdy Adham on the second board while Vidit Gujarathi, Murali Karthikeyan and Parimarjan Negi were held to draws by Hesham Abdelrahman, Abdelnabbi Imed and Farahat Ali respectively. [caption id=“attachment_3734719” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Indian chess player S Vijayalakshmi at World Team Chess Championship. Image courtesy: Twitter/@ChessbaseIndia[/caption] Russia emerged as the sole leader on nine points defeating Norway by a good 3-1 margin. World champion Magnus Carlsen was sorely missed by his team as the Russians made merry on the last two boards while drawing the top two. China shares the second spot along with Poland on eight points each. The Chinese were held to a draw by Turkey that is certainly turning out to be the team of the event. With no big stars or world class players, the Turkish men are yet to lose a match and hold the fourth position past the half way stage in this ten-team nine-rounds championship. The Indian men hold the fifth spot, a point ahead of Ukraine and it looks like that the podium will only be decided between the top six teams at this point. In the women’s championship Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Wafa Shrook but Tania Sachdev, Eesha Karavade and S Vijayalakshmi ensured an Indian triumph by winning on the remaining three boards and securing a 3-1 victory. After the win, the Indian eves remained on third spot on seven points. The lead is shared by Russia and Ukraine on eight points apiece while the Chinese women are crawling their way back on six points. In the important clashes of the fifth round, China rose back in contention with a thumping 3.5-0.5 victory over Georgia while United States women held the Russian eves on all four boards. The world team is the premier team event with four boards in each round. For each win, the teams are awarded two points while the points are shared in the event of a draw. The Indian teams qualified to the championship by virtue of excellent results in the last Chess Olympiad where the men finished fourth and the women ended fifth. Results round 5 open: Egypt (0) lost to India (6) 1.5-2.5 (Hesham Abdelrahman drew with Vidit Gujarathi; B Adhiban beat Fawdy Adham; Abdelnabbi Imed drew with Murali Karthikeyan; Parimarjan Negi drew with Farahat Ali); USA (4) drew with Belarus (2) 2-2; Russia (9) beat Norway (2) 3-1; Ukraine (4) lost to Poland (8) 1-3; Turkey (7) drew with China (8) 2-2; Women: Egypt (0) lost to India (7) ( Wafa Shrook beat D Harika; Tania Sachdev beat Ayah Moaataz; Elansary Eman lost to Eesha Karavade; S Viajayalakshmi beat Tasneem Ehab); Poland (5) drew with Ukraine (8) 2-2; Russia (8) drew with USA (4) 2 -2; Vietnam (4) beat Azerbaijan (4) 2.5-1.5; China (6) beat Georgia (4) 3.5-0.5.