Chess Olympiad: India first team to qualify for quarter-finals after beating China 4-2

India became the first team to advance into the quarter-finals of ongoing FIDE online chess Olympiad on Sunday after it defeated China 4-2 in the final round of the top division.

India finished with 17 points, ahead of China who ended up with 16 points. Germany (11) and Iran (9) were third and fourth on the list respectively. India had kicked off the day by defeating Georgia 4-2 in the seventh round of top division. China had got the better of Vietnam in the 7th round.

India does it! 4:2 win against China, four draws & two wins on U20 boards. 15-year old Praggnanandhaa R was on the ropes, but managed to turn the tables on Liu Yan & finish with a perfect 6/6 score. India takes first place in Pool A & is the first team to qualify to quarterfinals pic.twitter.com/eVOW0IH6IQ

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 23, 2020

India had overpowered Germany to set up an ultimate showdown with China in Round 9.

Against Georgia, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand drew with Levan Pantsulaia while P Harikrishna beat Luka Paichadze to give India the lead. Koneru Humpy had a stalemate against Meri Arabidze, while D Harika lost to Nino Batsiashvili. R Praggnanandhaa and Divya Deshmukh in the end secured win over Nikolozi Kacharava and Diana Lomaia to help India cross the 7th round barrier.

Round 8 against Germany was won by India 4.5-1.5. Vidit, Bhakti Kulkarni and Vantika Agarwal won their respective encounters while Harikrishna, Harika and Nihal Sarin played draws.

In final round of the top division, India defeated formidable China 4-2. Vidit played a draw with World number 3 Ding Liren. Current world champion Ju Wenjun had a stalemate against Harika and Humpy-Hou Yifan’s ended in a draw too. Harikrishna’s match against Yangyi Yu also ended in a draw. Praggnanandhaa and Divya notched up the much-needed wins against Yan Liu and Jiner Zhu, respectively in the end.