Bengaluru: Second seeds India got their Olympiad campaign off to a good start with a 4-0 win in the Open section over Morocco, seeded 93rd, in the opening round in Budapest on Wednesday. Typically, top teams play relatively weaker teams in the first couple of rounds. World Championship challenger D Gukesh sat out the first round.

R Praggnanandhaa scored the first point of the day for India, playing a flawless game against IM Mohamed Tissir with White. Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna too racked up a point each. On Board 3, playing with the Black pieces, Arjun Erigaisi opted for a gutsy piece sacrifice against Jacques Elbilia and the engines didn’t love it a whole lot. The evaluation bar leaped in favour of White. The world No 4 Indian managed to see himself and the team through to a 4-0 win in the opener.

In the women’s section, India – who have upstaged Georgia to become top seeds – were paired against Jamaica in the opening round. Vaishali R rang in the first point for her side, having milked her opponent’s weak isolated pawn. Tania Sachdev had little trouble dispatching Gabriella Watson with the White pieces.

At the Olympiad hosted in India two years ago, the Indian women’s side had won their first-ever Olympiad medal, a bronze. Neither Russia nor China had participated and the Indian women were within touching distance of a gold medal before they had to be content with a bronze. This time, India’s highest-ranked women’s player Koneru Humpy has chosen to skip the team tournament.

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