Chess Olympics: India B juniors beat (3-1) USA, far away from gold | Chess news

The future defeated the present. Three 16-year-olds and an 18-year-old have clearly thrust themselves into the American Gala team, theoretically destined for gold, and have dropped to 9th place at the end of three days. India B’s leading team, Tommaraju Gukesh, has 8 wins in eight games and is already ranked 20th in the world. Another very young team, Uzbekistan, share 2nd position with India B, one point behind Armenia, India A Winner (2.5-1.5) Winner (2.5-1.5) Round 9 (Sunday) Key Matches India B – Azerbaijan vs Uzbekistan – Armenia is.

In addition to immense talent, Gukesh exudes the serenity of a Buddhist monk; The blood does not run through his veins, but it gives the appearance of being harchata or very soft. After defeating none other than world number two Fabiano Caruana in 2018, the young Indian sat on the dais of the press room as if he was going to have a private coffee with press officer Spaniard Michael Rahal. He sat beside him. In front of him were dozens of journalists – most of them Indians – and cameras pointed at him from all angles, but he didn’t move.

In keeping with this dispassionate nature, Gukesh never says anything flashy. What do you think of his stratospheric performance (equivalent to 3,466 Elo points) in this tournament? “I’m very happy, but there are still three rounds and you never know what the future holds.” Is playing for India the main reason for your confidence? “Yes, that is very important.” And, until he finally said something remarkable, when asked how he managed to beat a great star like Caruana: “First of all, it’s an honor to play against him. I was bad at the start, but it helped me prove that I am capable of holding a low position against anyone, which is very encouraging.

In fact, in the 23rd set, Caruana was clearly better when he didn’t dare sacrifice a piece in exchange for a very dangerous attack for the Indian player. Instead, he played very poised and paid dearly for it: Gukesh called, then took the initiative, and won like a pawn and ruthlessly. It wasn’t a spectacular performance, but from the best class of Indian superpowers, the victory made him his country’s No. 2 player after five-time world champion and national player Viswanathan Anand. It’s true that Caruana is in crisis after losing the Candidates Tournament in Madrid a month ago, but only someone aiming for glory can win eight games in a row on the first board of the Olympiad and fight for medals from the start.

Gold has been excluded from America except in grand caroms. It must have been a disaster for billionaire Rex Sinquefield, the high-profile patron who built the world’s best chess club in St. Louis, Missouri, and invested a lot of money in recent years to nationalize or renovate Caruana (Italy). , Wesley So (Philippines), Leinier Domínguez (Cuba) and Levón Aronian (Armenia), as well as host amazing tournaments every year. This forty-fourth Olympiad, without China or Russia and with France missing its stars, is an unusual opportunity to revisit the gold achieved in Baku 2016.

His teammates Nihal Sarin (18) and Pragnananda (17 on Wednesday) shared the points with Aronian and Cho respectively as Gukesh Garuana and Sathwani (16) beat Dominguez in a thrilling game. In the next table, the best Indian team fell to Armenia: Harikrishna lost to Sargsyan, and three draws: Vidit-Melkumian, Ericazi-Ter Sahakyan and Narayanan-Hovhannisyan. In the next match, the young Uzbeks beat Germany by the same result.

Paco Vallejo, still recovering from a severe cold, reappeared after three breaks (for Shirov to rest) and clearly defeated a fierce rival, the Egyptian Amin. Anton and Jaime Santos also won, and Idurizaka drew; They are 19th, three points off bronze. The women beat Italy (2.5-1.5) with wins for Sabrina Vega and Calcetta, a draw for Madnadze and a loss for Marta Garcia. They sit in tenth place, one point off the medals – which currently sits with India, Georgia and Ukraine – and they theoretically face inferior rivals Indonesia tomorrow.

Magnus Carlsen failed to win again; He painted with an unknown Slovakian Pechak. USA (9th), India A (7th), Norway (40th), Spain (19th) and Poland (43rd) are now absent from the top five. In contrast, two Spanish-speaking countries are doing well: Peru (37th, 16th from the start) and Andorra (58th, 33rd). Having lots of Elo points is not enough if you don’t perform with great team spirit with a few drops of ambition to shine.

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