India defeated France in a thrilling tie-breaker to enter the semifinals of the FIDE World Team Chess Championship in Jerusalem. (More Sports News)
After the two sets of matches were shared by the teams by a 3-1 margin, the Indians won the blitz tie-break 2.5-.1.5. Nihal Sarin and S L Narayanan did the star turn w📖ith victories over Jules Moussard and Laurent Fressinet respectively early on Thursday.
Vidit Gujrathi, India's top p🅘layer, held the toᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚp French star Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw in 45 moves while the experienced K Sasikiran was beaten by Maxime Lagarde in 55 moves but the wins by Sarin and Narayanan did the trick.
India will take on Uzbekistan in the seꦯmifinals later on Thursday nigh💦t.
Earlier in the first of the two matches, Gujrathi pulled off a win over Lagrave 🧜and Narไayanan defeated Fressinet. Draws for Sarin and Sasikiran ensured a comprehensive 3-1 win.
France turned the tables in the second match wi♔th Lagrave beating Gujrathi and Fressinet getting the🥀 better of Naryanan.
Sarin and Sasikiran hel൩d their higher rated opponents-Moussard and Tigran Gharamian to draws. The two wins and the 3-1 win helped the Frenchman level the quarterfi𝔉nal tie.
Uzbekistan won the first match 3-1 against Ukrai💙ne and took the next 2.5-1.5 to march into the semifinals.
Spain and Azerbaijan tied their first match 2-2 with games on all four boards ending൲ in draws before the former claimed the second 2.5-1.5 to set up a semifinal clash against China, a winner over Poland.
