Olympiad: How Nihal saved India's day amid Gukesh's historic drop in rating points

NEW DELHI: The current world champion, Dommaraju Gukesh, was on Board 1 facing all the top-rated opponents during India's gold-clinching campaign in Budapest at the 2024 Chess Olympiad. Besides the team, Gukesh won an individual gold too, boosting his overall confidence ahead of the Championship challenge against China's Ding Liren. If that was the highest point of Gukesh's Olympiad journey, Round 2 of the 46th edition of the Chess Olympiad brought the lowest, as the 20-year-old Chennai grandmaster fell below 2700 rating after his draw against Indonesia's International Master (IM) Satria Duta Cahaya on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.With Arjun Erigaisi taking a rest after his loss against Thai IM Prin Laohawirapap on the opening day of the tournament and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa taking his designated Board 1 this time, Gukesh once again took Board 3 in India's match against Indonesia.The game itself, however, was a long, patient battle rather than a…