Bengaluru: After three out of four India-Uzbekistan games ended in draws, it was down Arjun Erigaisi in Round 9 on Friday. It’s typically these final rounds in the Olympiad when things begin to get messy and wild. India’s highest-ranked player who has had a 3000+ performance rating in the tournament, Arjun gave away his advantage as Vokhidov Shamsiddin put up a fine resistance and the position veered to equal and India-Uzbekistan’s split points in 2-2 result.

Earlier, Vokhidov blundered with 37…Ne7 and had Arjun pushed his bishop to f7 it would have been winning. Under time pressure, Arjun missed it.

India, on sole lead with 17 match points, remains in a commanding position for the gold in the Open section and will face USA in Round 10 on Saturday.

“I knew India’s cards were very good but it just feels like everything is falling in place,” said five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand on the Fide live stream.

Uzbekistan has brought in former world champion Vladimir Kramnik as captain for this Olympiad, replacing Ivan Sokolov who guided the team to a gold last time. The top board match-up between D Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov was supposed to be a grudge game. Gukesh had suffered a bruising loss to Uzbeki at the Olympiad two years ago. Two rising superstars of chess, both unbeaten in Budapest. Gukesh played a rare g3 pawn push on move 8 in a Najdorf but there weren’t any major fireworks in the game and it fizzled out to a draw.

Anand spoke about certain games being so painful for him that when he looked at his opponents it hurt. He was curious if Gukesh too experienced something similar over the Abdusattorov game from two years ago.

“It was particularly painful for me because not only did he lose, he also shot past a draw…A couple of times I tried to talk to Gukesh like a shrink and asked him: Is there a lot of pain inside you? He looked at me almost with this look of ‘what the hell are you talking about’,” Anand laughed, recalling the incident, “So I’m going to assume he’s past it.”

The women’s team suffered a jolt in Round 8 with a loss to Poland. On Thursday, Vantika Agrawal played a key role in preventing a repeat of the 2022 Olympiad when India lost to USA to miss out on the gold. She defeated Irina Krush with Black to give the team a 2-2 draw against the Americans. Earlier, Tania Sachdev went from a clearly better position to agreeing to a draw against 14-year-old Alice Lee, which the Indian might perhaps come to rue.

Kramnik reportedly filed an official complaint about the presence of mobile phones, even if they were being used only for recording videos, in the playing hall. Consequently, a phone placed on a tripod next to Gukesh and Abdusattorov’s board was temporarily removed.

Away from Indian boards, in a major upset Magnus Carlsen lost to Vladmir Fedoseev as Norway slumped further down in the standings while reigning world champion Ding Liren went from a winning position against Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo to the game petering out to an equal rook endgame and a draw.

Round 9 results

India Open (India-Iran)

D Gukesh drew Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Jakhovir Sindarov drew R Praggnanandhaa

Arjun Erigaisi drew Vokhidov Shamsiddin

Vakhidov Jakhongir drew Vidit Gujrathi

Indian Women (India-USA)

Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova beat Vaishali R

Divya Deshmukh drew Carissa Yip

Irina Krush lost to Vantika Agrawal

Tania Sachdev drew Alice Lee

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