Chess Olympiad: Indian open team back to winning ways; women outclass Germany

The rest day seemed to have helped both the Indian teams at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. The defending champion India scored badly-needed wins in the open and women’s sections in the seventh round on Wednesday.

After the loss to host Uzbekistan in the previous round -- their first in the tournament -- the Indian men should be relieved that they could defeat England 2.5-1.5. It was the wins by R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh over Nikita Vitiugov and Daniel Howard Fernandez, respectively, that nullified Nihal Sarin’s second straight defeat, this time to Luke McShane. Arjun Erigaisi drew with Michael Adams.

Uzbekistan has maintained its sole lead after scoring a crucial 3-1 win over China. The home team has 12 match points, two more than India and four others – the Netherlands, Germany, Azerbaijan and Armenia.