spain: World team chess: India lose bronze medal play-off to Spain

India lost 1-3 to Spain in the tie-break after the two-round bronze medal play-off ended in a tie at the FIDE World Team Chess Championship, here on Saturday.

In both the rounds the teams played out a 2-2 draw. But Jaime Santos Latasa and David Anton Guijarro gave Spain the advantage by defeating Vidit Santosh Gujrati and Nihal Sarin respectively in the blitz tie-break.

In other games, SL Narayanan played out a draw with Alexey Shirov and Abhijit Gupta drew with Miguel Santos Ruiz. This gave Spain a 3-1 victory early on Saturday.

In the first round, Gujarát drew Santos Latasa playing black, while Sarin signed peace with Guijarro in the last game of that match. Two other games Narayanan versus Daniel Yufa and Gupta against Santos Ruiz also ended in draws. The pattern was repeated in the second round as games on all four boards with equal players ended in draws.

Spain took the tie-break for a 4–2 victory and their first medal in the team competition.

Meanwhile, China defeated Uzbekistan 4–0, winning the two rounds by identical 2.5–1.5 scorelines.

Originally published at Pen 18