As the rest day of the Women’s Chess Olympiad approaches, India have taken sole possession of the tournament after a 2.5-1.5 win over Armenia in the sixth round. Divya Deshmukh scored the only decisive win of the match, helping the Indian team maintain their perfect record. A point behind India are Georgia and Poland, who each won by narrow margins, with Salome Melia contributing to Georgia’s win and Olivia Kiotbasa securing the decisive win for Poland. | Photo: FEDI/Maria Emelyanova
Decisive and tense matches
Three games of the sixth round of the Women’s Chess Olympiad on Monday ended with scores of 2.5-1.5, the smallest possible margin in a four-round match. Each game featured three draws and one decisive win. India beat joint leaders Armenia with a win by Divya Deshmukh at table three, while Georgia edged out former leaders Mongolia with a win by Salome Melia at table four, and Poland beat fourth-seeded China with a decisive win by Olivia Kiutbasa at table three.
The Indian women’s team is one of only two teams in Budapest – in both divisions of the Olympics – to have maintained a perfect record so far. Unlike the Open Division, where the Indian team dominates (and is now seriously chasing two gold medals), the women’s team has come away with two narrow wins in a row to take the tournament by themselves. This ability to pick up tough early wins could prove beneficial to the team in the long run, as the players have shown their determination to overcome tough obstacles. Against Armenia, Divya Deshmukh secured a decisive victory, defeating Elina Danielyan in style at table three to maintain India’s unbeaten record.
In the match between Georgia and Mongolia, the top seeded team managed to stop Mongolia’s surprise winning streak in the previous rounds. The first three matches ended in a balanced draw, while Salome Melia managed to secure the decisive win on the fourth table thanks to a strong performance in the final match, as she outplayed Erdenbayar Khuslin to secure the victory for Georgia.
While Poland’s win over China was significant, it didn’t come as a huge surprise – Poland is seeded third, while China is seeded fourth. However, China’s back-to-back losses were unexpected, especially given their impressive performance in the first four rounds. After losing to Armenia in round five, China stumbled again on Monday. Poland’s standout player, Olivia Kiwtbasa, earned the winning point after beating Guo Qi on table three. Kiwtbasa has built a strong reputation at the Olympics, having won nine games in a row at the 2022 edition in Chennai, and has now scored 4.5 out of 5 in the first half of the tournament in Budapest.
General standings and future expectations
With these results, Georgia and Poland are tied for second place, one point behind India as the tournament enters its rest day. Nine other teams, all of whom were originally ranked in the top 20, occupy the next spot, one point behind. Of these, Peru (ranked 39th) and Australia (ranked 46th) made headlines after surprising stronger opponents on Monday: Peru drew with Hungary, and Australia beat Israel.
