The Indian men's team scored yet another thumping 3.5-0.5 points victory over Iran to stake claim for the gold medal in the Open section but the women suffered a shock 1.5-2.5 points defeat at the hands of Poland in the eighth round of the 45th Chess Olympiad currently underway here.
With their eighth victory in as many matches, the Indian men took their tally to 16 points and stretched their lead to a massive two points over nearest rivals Hungary and Uzbekistan with just three rounds left in the biggest chess event on the planet.
World number four Arjun Erigaisi started the rampage with black pieces and crashed through the defences of Bardiya Daneshvar who proved no match for the Indian. World Championship challenger D Gukesh then put it across Parham Maghsoodloo with black pieces, swindling the Iranian towards the end of the first time-control.
R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Amin Tabatabaei to make sure of an Indian victory and Vidit Gujrathi added to the team's tally as he outclassed Idani Pouya in all departments of the game to give another huge victory to the team.
For Arjun, this was another step towards the 2800-rating mark as he took his personal tally to a remarkable 7.5 points from eight games. In live ratings, Arjun is now at 2793 points, and if he does cross the 2800 mark, he will be the 16th player in history -- and only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand -- to do so.
Taking a cue from Arjun, Gukesh made sure he kept closing in, and his victory took him to 2785 rating points. This is the first time ever that there are two Indians in top-five of the world rankings.
Arjun created early complications again, going for the reverse Benoni with his black pieces. Daneshvar fell for some tactical tricks in the middle game and could not recover.
Gukesh also won with black and it was another Queen pawn game wherein the Indian chose to play the Dubov variation in the Tarrasch defense. Maghsoodloo went for some unwarranted complications and was caught off-guard as the clock ticked away in the middle game. Soon, the Iranian parted with a piece for a handful of pawns but fell prey to an easy tactical stroke that ended the game.
Vidit Gujrathi went for the Sozin variation against the Sicilian defence by Pouya and his attack was simply overwhelming, while Praggnanandhaa took things easy to ward off any serious counterplay by Tabatabaei.
In the women's section, the Indian team faltered for once as Grandmaster D Harika continued to struggle with her form on the top board, going down to Alina Kashlinskaya. This was Harika's third loss in the event.
Polish Monika Socko defeated R Vaishali on the second board in a technical endgame where the latter made some unforced errors while Divya Deshmukh fought very hard to beat Aleksandra Maltsevskaya on the third board.
It was left to Vantika Agrawal to equalise and it looked like she had a complete winning position on hand. However, in to the sixth hour of play, Vantika made an optical blunder under time pressure and had to be content with a draw in the end with Alicja Sliwicka.
The Indian women's team was joined by Poland and Kazakhstan on 14 points apiece at the top of the table, while USA, Armenia and Ukraine are a point behind.
In the next round, Indian men will take on Uzbekistan while the women are pitted against USA.
Results (Round 8) Open: Iran (12) lost to India (16) 0.5-3.5 (Parham Maghsoodloo lost to D Gukesh; R Praggnanandhaa drew with Amin Tabatabaei; Bardiya Daneshvar lost to Arjun Erigaisi; Vidit Gujrathi beat Idani Pouya); Hungary (14) beat Armenia (12) 2.5-1.5; Serbia (12) lost to Uzbekistan (14) 1.5-2.5; United States of America (13) beat France (11) 2.5-1.5; China (13) beat Romania (11) 2.5-1.5.
Women: Poland (14) beat India (14) 2.5-1.5 (Alina Kashlinskaya beat D Harika; R Vaishali lost to Monica Socko; Aleksandra Maltsevskaya lost to Divya Deshmukh; Vantika Agrawal drew with Alicja Sliwicka); Kazakhstan (14) beat France (12) 2.5-1.5; Uzbekistan (11) lost to United States of America (13) 0.5-3.5; Hungary (11) lost to Ukraine (13) 1.5-2.5; Armenia (13) beat Mongolia (11) 3.5-0.5.
