Indian women survived a shock loss of D Harika to thump Egypt 3-1 while the men scraped past the same opponent 2.5-1.5 in the fifth round of the World Team Chess Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on Wednesday.
Both the Indian teams were expected to go for broke against bottom placed Egypt to climb the standings ladder.
While the loss of D Harika on the top board against Wafa Shrook would have come as a shock to the women’s team, the likes of Tania Sachdev, Esha Karvade and Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman won their respective matches to take India to third position in the standings with 11.5 points.
Leaders Russia are at 12.5 points while Ukraine is half a point behind.
The men’s team, however, failed to come up with a domineering performance with only B Adhiban managing to win his match against Fawzy Adham on the second board. The men are now fifth in standings with 11.5 points.
After a rest day on Thursday, the men’s team will take on Turkey while the women will face Russia.