In both the sections, India won scoring 2.5 – 1.5 points.
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Open: Ukraine (16) beat India (14) 2.5-1.5 (Pavel Eljanov drew with P. Hari Krishna; Ruslan Ponomariov drew with B. Adhiban; Yuriy Kryvoruchko drew with Vidit Gujrathi; Anton Korobov bt S. P. Sethuraman); USA (16) bt Norway (13) 3-1; Azerbaijan 1 (13) lost to Russian Federation (15) 1-3; Iran (13) drew with England (13) 2-2; Latvia (13) drew with Slovenia (13) 2-2; Netherlands (12) lost to Czech Republic (14) 1.5-2.5.
The strong Russian team consisted of World title challenger and World No.9 Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin (ELO rating 2769), World No.4 GM Vladimir Kramnik (2808), World No.21 GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2740) and World No.13 GM Alexander Grischuk (2754).
Against Barbados only Roberto Neto on board four was able to secure a draw as the top three Guyanese players lost to their opponents all of whom were higher rated and FIDE Masters.
After that it was a matter of precise play by Harikrishna to pocket the point.
While the end was obvious Adhiban fought till the end hoping for some error from his opponent which are rare at Kramnik’s level.
The other lad from Chennai GM B. Adhiban signed a peace treaty with his English rival GM David W.L. Howell in 35 moves.
Similarly WGM Soumya Swaminathan drew her game in 35 moves with both the players having just six pawns and their king on the board.
The third board saw GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi with white pieces battling it out against Nepomniachtchi.
The fourth board saw India’s GM S.P. Sethuraman locking horns against GM Anton Korobov who opted for the Sicilian defence.
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In the women’s section World No.5 Indian GM Harika Dronavalli opened the points account by winning against Zhaoqin Peng in 30 moves. Only IM Padmini Rout lost her match in the ninth round.
