Chess Olympiad : Indian eves tamed by China; Men hold England

It turned out to be a tough day for Indian girls against top seed China as only D Harika could salvage a creditable draw with women's world champion Yifan Hou on the top board.

Eesha Karavade had her chances but went down to Zhao Xue on the second board and Tania Sachdev was outplayed by Ju Wenjun on the third board. On the last board, Mary Ann Gomes put up some resistance but in the end Qian Huang of China ensured the big victory.

The Indian men, in contrast, held their own and in fact had another chance to upstage a higher seed following a mix-up against USA in the previous round.

There was not much excitement in this encounter as K Sasikiran and P Harikrishna drew comfortably on the top two boards while Abhijeet Gupta also had no troubles whatsoever in keeping his fortress together with black pieces against Nicolas Pert on the last board.

Parimarjan Negi got some real winning chances in the middle game against his former coach Nigel Short but that too fizzled out to a draw as the game reached a level rook and pawns endgame leaving the match to qualify as an all-drawn encounter.

At the top of the tables in the open section, Highest rated player in the Olympiad and

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