Samarkand, Sept. 17 -- Defending champions in both the open and women's events, the Indian teams won their matches -- albeit with some hiccups -- to remain atop the leaderboard with four match points after the second round of the 46th Chess Olympiad here on Thursday.
For the second day running, Nihal Sarin was the difference between two teams as he defeated Hafiz Arif Abdul after briefly missing out on a tactical trick. Up against a Sicilian with white pieces, Nihal went for a direct attack against the black king but for just one move his own king came under serious trouble.
However, as it happened, Hafiz missed on the trick and landed his king in deep trouble with many pieces still remaining on the board. Nihal wrapped up the issues quickly thereafter.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.