In the FIDE Chess Olympiad, reigning World Classical Chess Champion Dommaraju Gukesh secured a clutch win to help India beat overnight joint-topper Germany 2.5-1.5 in the ninth round of the men’s Open section, moving up to second position in the standings.

With this win, India roared back into title contention as they are in a good position to challenge table-toppers Uzbekistan for the title. In the crucial clash on Table 2, R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin were held to draws on the first three boards before Gukesh secured the lone victory of the match against Germany.

In the women’s section, B Savitha Shri’s incredible run of seven successive wins came to an end, but she remained unbeaten after a draw against Karimova Guldona of Uzbekistan on the top table. Koneru Humpy was held by top Uzbek Afruza Khamdamova, but Women’s World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh and Ventika Agrawal won their games to secure a 3-1 win for India.

The victory took them to 15 points from nine rounds as they shared the second spot with Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Armenia went down 1-3 to leaders China, while Mongolia drew 2-2 with Kazakhstan.