World champion D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi registered convincing victories but Arjun Erigaisi’s late collapse cost India a clean sweep as the men’s team began its campaign at the 46th World Chess Olympiad with a 3-1 win over Thailand here on Wednesday.
Nihal was the first Indian to win, defeating Thanadon Kulpruethanon, before Gukesh produced a brilliant attacking display to beat Faris Rashid Alriyami. Vidit then completed a comfortable victory over Tupfah Khumnorkaew.
Arjun, however, went down to Prin Laohawirapap after being in a position of strength for much of the game.
Playing with the white pieces, Arjun missed a huge advantage in the latter stages of the middlegame and was eventually dragged into the sixth hour.
Laohawirapap, a 20-year-old, held his nerve despite running short of time and capitalised on Arjun’s final blunder. With checkmate imminent, Arjun resigned.
Arjun was not the only big name to suffer on the opening day, with highly-rated Levon Aronian of
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