Batumi (Georgia): World Rapid Champion Viswanathan Anand put it past Markus Ragger in a brilliant positional game as the Indian men’s team cruised to a 3.5-0.5 victory over Austria in the second round of the 43rd Chess Olympiad here Wednesday.
Back to the Olympiad after a gap of 12 years, Anand was precise in calculation and brilliant in judgement giving away nothing to Ragger who was all at sea defending a difficult position out of the opening.
P Harikrishna, on the second board, benefitted from a late blunder by Valentin Dragnev after Vidit Gujrathi ensured an Indian lead with a fluent victory over Andreas Diermair. On the fourth board, B Adhiban was held to a draw by Peter Schreiner. With their second 3.5-0.5 victory, the Indian men remain in joint lead on four points with 40 other teams and will next take on Canada.
The Indian women scored a 4-0 victory defeating Venezuela on all four boards. On the top board, Grandmaster D Harika was stretched but not hassled by Sarai Carolina Sachez Castillo.
On the second, Tania Sachdev played a clean game to outwit Amelia Hernandez Bonilla. Eesha Karavade was in her elements against Tairu Manuela Rovira Contreras and national champion Padmini Rout defeated Corals Patino Garcia to complete the whitewash.
With 33 teams leading in this section, the Indian women will be next facing Serbia that might pose a better challenge.
Anand played the Italian opening that has been finding a lot of favour in top level chess these days. Banking upon an idea played by Grandmaster S P Sethuraman in December last year, Anand found the going easy in a strategic battle when Ragger went wrong in his planning.