Chess Olympiad: India men beat Thailand 3-1; women win 4-0 over Dominican Republic

India's men's team beat Thailand 3-1 at the 46th World Chess Olympiad on Wednesday, while the Indian women's side opened its campaign with a 4-0 victory over the Dominican Republic.

World champion D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi recorded wins for the men, but Arjun Erigaisi's late collapse denied India a clean sweep in the opening round at the Olympiad. The women's team produced a full-point result across all four boards.

Nihal Sarin was the first Indian to score, defeating Thanadon Kulpruethanon to give India an early lead. D Gukesh followed with what the report described as a brilliant attacking display to beat Faris Rashid Alriyami. Vidit Gujrathi then completed a comfortable victory over Tupfah Khumnorkaew that put India firmly in control of the match.

Arjun Erigaisi, playing with the white pieces, lost to Prin Laohawirapap after missing a substantial advantage in the later stages of the middlegame. The game extended into a sixth hour, during which 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.

Notable individual results elsewhere on the opening day included highly-rated Levon Aronian of the United States being held to a draw by Iraq's Ali Ehsan Aryan.

The Indian women's 4-0 win featured Koneru Humpy defeating Franchesca Ramirez Luzon with the white pieces and R Vaishali overcoming Miguelina De La Rosa Martinez in a smooth performance. Vantika Agrawal worked harder for her victory over Mary Loly Gonzalez Peguero after appearing to be headed for a draw until an opponent error produced a rook-and-minor-piece endgame in which Vantika's advanced passed pawn proved decisive. B Savitha Shri celebrated her Olympic debut with a win over Karla Mya Nunez Diaz.

The Olympiad has attracted teams from across the world. Each team may name five players in its squad, with four selected to play each round; there are 11 rounds in all, a match win earns two match points, and game points will serve as the tie-breaker if teams finish level on match points.