Chess Olympiad: Indian open team to meet Armenia in 9th round

Chennai : With the 43rd World Chess Olympiad nearing the end game phase, the fifth seeded Indian team in the open category will cross swords against the eighth seeded Armenia in the ninth round on Wednesday.

Both the teams with 13 points each will play on the third table.

On the first table top seeded the US will meet 11th seeded Poland. On the second table third seeded China will play against fourth seeded Azerbaijan.

At the start of the ninth round, there are seven teams with 13 points and India is one of them. The top two teams are the US with 15 points and Poland with 14 points.

A victory in the three rounds (9th, 10th and 11th) is needed for the Indian open team to figure in the medal list.

In the women's section, after being stunned by much lower rated Hungary in the eighth round, fifth seeded India will be meeting 18th seeded Italy.

India has scored 11 points in eight rounds.

China and Ukraine are leading the women's section with 14 points each and followed by Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the US, Hungary and Armenia with 13 points each.

There are four countries with 12 points and 16 countries, including India with 11 points each.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)