Chess Olympiad: IM Vantika Agrawal fights severe time pressure to beat grandmaster Bella Khotenashvilli

The Indian women’s team continued their march towards the gold medal after bringing down the mighty Georgian team in the seventh round of the Chess Olympiad.

After seven rounds, India are the only team with 14 points just like the Indian team in the open section. Wednesday’s victory sees the Indian women’s team take a two-point lead over Poland, Kazakhstan and France, who are joint second in the standings if match points are considered.

The star of the seventh round for India was international master Vantika Agrawal who took down grandmaster Bella Khotenashvilli to hand India the edge over Georgia. At that stage, there had been two draws on the board with the Divya Deshmukh vs Nino Batsiashvili clash and the Harika Dronavalli vs Nana Dzagnidze game ending in draws.

Vaishali later defeated Lela Javakhishvili to secure a comfortable win for India in the seventh round of the Olympiad.

Georgia is a traditional chess superpower. They have nine medals in total (four gold, two silver, three bronze). But it must be noted that their latest Olympiad medal was a silver in 2022 after losing a close contest with champions Ukraine. Their golds came in the 90s, with the team still led by the legendary Nona Gaprindashvili. They have had other superstars in the women’s section like Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani.

INTERACTIVE: How Vantika Agrawal took down grandmaster Bella Khotenashvilli

What was impressive about Vantika Agrawal’s win in round 7 of the Olympiad was that she was under severe time pressure from the 19th move itself. She had under seven minutes left on the clock, meaning she had to make her next 21 moves in 17 minutes (considering she would get a 30-second increment per move).

By the 21st move, Vantika’s time was reduced to just a minute on the clock while her opponent had 25 minutes.

While the game was still on level terms, Khotenashvilli made two critical decisions that handed Vantika the advantage: 22. Qb5+?! and 26. g3?

By the 26th move, Khotenashvilli’s advantage on the clock was also eroded with she having just two minutes while Vantika had a minute.

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