Online Olympiad: India climbs to top spot in Pool B

Chennai

The India team, led by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, edged out Belarus 3.5-2.5 after outclassing Shenzhen China 5-1 and Azerbaijan 4-2. India, joint winner of the title in 2020, leads the table at the end of six rounds with 11 points and is ahead of Hungary, also on 11 on the basis of a better tie-break-2 score.

India has won five matches and drawn one so far. France occupies the third spot with eight points while Azerbaijan is fourth with seven. In the hardly-fought match against Belarus, skipper Anand got the team off to a good start, beating Aleksej Aleksandrov.

Bhakti Kulkarni played a key role, posting a win over Kseniya Norman. Vidit Gujrathi and Tania Sachdev drew their matches while R Praggnanandhaa went down to Denis Lazavik. R Vaishali stole a draw in the final match against Kseniya Zelintsova to help India win.