China prevent Gukesh vs Ding Liren battle at Chess Olympiad resting world champion after defeat in previous round | Chess News
Chess enthusiasts who were hoping to catch a preview of the Chess World Championship match between Ding Liren and D Gukesh on Wednesday at the Chess Olympiad were left disappointed after the Chinese world champion was rested for the round 7 clash between India and China.
In the Open section, the Indian team take on China while the Indian women’s team will clash with Georgia. On Wednesday, Gukesh will square off with GM Wei Yi, Yangyi Yu will face R. Praggnanandha, Arjun Erigaisi will lock horns with Bu Xiangzhi while Wang Yue tests his wits against Pentala Harikrishna.
In the women’s event, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali R, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal face off with Nana Dzagnidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili and Bella Khotenashvilli respectively.
The much-anticipated World Championship encounter between Gukesh and Ding Liren will take place in Singapore from November 20 to December 14.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Erigaisi had regered his sixth victory in as many games as the Indian team scored its sixth straight win in the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad.
Erigaisi scored over Russian-turned-Hungarian Sjugirov Sanan on what turned out to be a hard-fought day for the Indian men in the sixth round.
On the top board, Gukesh played out an easy draw as black against top Hungarian Richard Rapport. Erigaisi won against Sanan Sjugirov while Praggnanandhaa decided to sign peace with former great Peter Leko.
China, meanwhile, were held to a draw a spirited Vietnamese team that scored another great 2-2 result.
In the women’s section, Divya Deshmukh scored the much-needed victory over Elena Danielian to help India gain an early lead against Armenia.
D Harika played out a draw with Lilit Mkrtchian on the first board while R Vaishali followed suite against Mariyam Mkrtchyan.
With the team leading 2-1 margin, Tania Sachdev played it safe from a position of strength and played out a draw on the fourth board with Anna Sargasyan to help India win 2.5-1.5.
