FIDE World Women’s Team Chess Championship: Indian women lose 1-3 to Russia

Sitges (Spain), September 29

After two straight wins, India went down 1-3 to a formidable Russian team in a fourth Pool A match in the FIDE World Women’s Team Chess Championship, here.

India, which has qualified for the quarterfinals, will face France in the fifth and final preliminary match later on Wednesday.

D Harika, the top Indian player, held Aleksandra Goryachkina to a draw as did Mary Ann Gomes against Polina Shuvalova but Tania Sachdev and R Vaishali suffered defeats as the team lost to Russia in the fourth round late on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian women had beaten a strong Armenia 2.5-1.5 in the third round.

Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni notched up the important wins to set up the victory over Armenia.

Harika had settled for a draw against Elina Danielian while the talented, young Vaishali lost to Lilit Mkrtchian.

India and Armenia now have 5 points each after four rounds behind Russia (8). A team gets two points for winning a match and one for a draw.

In the India-Russia encounter, the higher rated Katernya Lagno and Alexandra Kosteniuk put it across Tania Sachdev and Vaishali to assert the Russian team’s superiority.

After drawing 2-2 with Azerbaijan in the opener, India had beaten Spain 2.5-1.5 in round two. PTI