Sports News | World Chess Championship: India Play Draw with Azerbaijan
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. D Harika and R Vaishali scored wins as India settled for a 2-2 draw against Azerbaijan in the Pool A opening round of the FIDE World Women's Team chess Championship, here on Monday.
Sitges (Spain), Sep 27 (PTI) D Harika and R Vaishali scored wins as India settled for a 2-2 draw against Azerbaijan in the Pool A opening round of the FIDE World Women's Team chess Championship, here on Monday.
Harika, the top player in the absence of Koneru Humpy, expectedly won her game, beating Gunay Mammadzada on the first board.
The promising, young R Vaishali, sister of teen prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, scored another point for India, beating Gulnar Mammadova on the fourth board.
However, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni were beaten by their Azerbaijan opponents to help them draw level.
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Harika, playing black pieces, outmaneuvered Mammadzada in 34 moves to provide India a strong start while Vaishali had to fight hard to subdue the challenge of Mammadova in 60 moves. Sachdev was outgunned by Ulviya Fataliyeva in 42 moves and Kulkarni lost to Turkan Mamedjarova in a 50-move game which enabled Azerbaijan to share honours. In other opening round matches in Pool A, a formidable Russian team trounced Spain 4-0 and Armenia edged out France 2.5-1.5. India plays Spain in the second round.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)