World Chess Olympiad | Indian teams ease past Bolivia, Macedonia

09/03/2016

Indian Chess teams started their campaign in the World Chess Olympiad with easy wins against lower-ranked Bolivia and Republic of Macedonia in the first round. The Indian team rested key players like GM Pentala Harikrishna and GM Harika Dronavalli for the clash.

Team India registered easy wins against Bolivia and Macedonia in the opening round of the World Chess Olympiad as both the men's and women's team strolled into the next round here on Friday. The men's team did not have to sweat it out against lower-ranked Bolivia, as they blanked the South Americans 4-0, and the women's team also won by the same margin against Republic of Macedonia.

Both the Indian teams rested their top players for the first round matches. The men's team opted to rest World No. 16 Grandmaster (GM) Pentala Harikrishna, while the women's team rested World No. 5 GM Harika Dronavalli.

The Indian men's team, who were seeded 11th, consisted of GrandMasters B. Adhiban, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, SP Sethuraman, and Karthikeyan Murali. Other top teams in the men's division such as Russia, China, Azerbaijan, US, Ukraine and Poland also blanked their opponents in the opening rounds.

Similarly, the Indian women's team who were the fifth seed, comprised International Master (IM) Padmini Rout, International Master (IM) Tania Sachdev, Women's Grand Master (WGM) Soumya Swaminathan, and Women's International Master (WIM) Pratyusha Bodda blanked the Macedonians 4-0 without much difficulty.

In the women's section, the top four seeds, China, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia also eased past their respective opponents in the opening rounds.