Armenia, alone in the lead after beating (2.5-1.5) the Indian youth

There are countries whose chess is so solid that they continue to shine even without their biggest stars.

Armenia, without Levón Aronian (now with USA) is the only leader of the Olympiad in Chennai after inflicting the first loss (in round 6) on the wonders of India B. India A, without five-time champion Anand, shares third place with India B and C, among others (including Cuba and Peru), behind the USA, who could only beat Iran 2.5-1.5 even though the Persians lost Alireza Firouzja (France).

Cuba, without Leinier Domínguez or Lázaro Bruzón (USA), tied with Spain (Paco Vallejo, with a cold, has not played for two rounds).

On the other hand, Norway (third seed = does not work despite the victories of Magnus Carlsen. This Thursday there is rest.

“Paco has a bit of a cough, probably due to the tremendous changes in temperature between the very powerful air conditioning and the heat in the street,” Jordi Magem, captain of the Spanish men’s team, explained to EL PAÍS.

After the three draws in the games of Alexéi Shirov, Jaime Santos and Eduardo Iturrizaga against Yasser Quesada, Luis Quesada and Omar Almeida, respectively, David Antón tried to impose his small advantage against Carlos Albornoz, without success.

Those who failed in India B were

Adhiban

(30 years old), against Ter-Sahakyán, and the least strong of the wonders, Sadhwani, against Hovhannisyán.

Nihal Sarin tied with Melkumyan.

And the one who continues without declining, and there are now six consecutive victories against posh rivals, is Dommaraju Gukesh, 16, winner of Sargissián with relative ease and already raised to 26th place in the world.

Seeing Iran's performance without Firouzja it's impossible not to wonder how far they could go with him.

Aronian, So and Leinier Domínguez could not break the resistance of Tabatabaei (born in 2001), Idani (1995) and Daneshvar (2006).

Only Caruana managed to knock down the very tough Maghsoodloo (2000).

The USA, who only dropped one point against Uzbekistan (another very young team), will face Armenia this Friday, after the break on Thursday.

The other meetings at the summit are India A – India C;

France – Netherlands;

Serbia – Germany;

Cuba – India and Peru – Uzbekistan.

Spain will face Kazakhstan.

In the women's competition, India is alone in the lead, with six wins after defeating (3-1) today another of the favorites, Georgia.

One point ahead of Azerbaijan and Romania.

Spain is 12th after defeating Denmark 4-0 and will face the Czech Republic on Friday.

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