The Indian teams made winning starts in the Open and women's sections of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai on Friday.
The Indian challenge in the women's section might already have ended as Zhongyi stood firmly ahead on five points while Goryachkina had 4.5 points in her kitty.
Grandmaster Sahaj Grover failed to capitalise on his chances and played out a draw with Iranian Pouya Idani, while Vidit Gujrathi defeated Polish Marcel Kanarek to be jointly third after the eighth round of the World Junior Chess Championship in Kocaeli, Turkey.
Gukesh to clash with Alireza on what promises to be a photo finish
World Champion D Gukesh went down to world's youngest-ever Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra of the US in the fifth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss.
In a surprising turn of events, Mumba Masters defeated tournament leaders PBG Alaskan Knights, denying them direct qualification to the finals of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London on Wednesday.
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh scored a crushing victory over Alexander Donchenko in the 10th round of Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands on Thursday.
Grandmaster R Pragnanandhaa held tournament leader and defending champion Anish Giri of Holland to a draw on the day.
Praggnanandhaa completed a win to book a match against compatriot Erigaisi, making sure an Indian will feature in the semi-final.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated the reigning and four-time women's world champion Wenjun Ju from China in the ninth round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
Pragg, Gujrathi out of contention
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh held on to the joint top spot with Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi after they played out an easy draw in the 10th round of the Candidates chess tournament in Toronto.
Hungary will officially host the 45th edition of the Olympiad for the first time, having hosted the second unofficial Chess Olympiad in 1926.
Led by Viswanathan Anand, the Ganges Grandmasters outclassed upGrad Mumba Masters 12-4 on the final day of the Global Chess League, avoiding a last-place finish as the tournament heads into the finals.
Four draws and two wins on Under-20 boards helped India pull off the victory against the Chinese.
Indian chess players failed to finish on the podium in the individual events
Grandmaster and former Asian champion S P Sethuraman has knocked out former FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a big first round upset at the Chess World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh caused the biggest upset of the World Chess Cup, ousting former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after winning the second game of the second round, in Panjim, on Wednesday.
Vidit Gujrathi also put an end to his losses by settling for a draw with Caruana.
Vantika Agrawal delivered when it mattered most as she defeated Grandmaster Irina Krush, helping India secure a 2-2 draw against United States.
The Indian men's team got off to another 3-0 start, led by Dommaraju Gukesh's triumph over H Stefansson of Iceland, in the second round.
The triumph entitles Gukesh a clash against reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the last quarter of the year.
With five points in his kitty from eight games, D Gukesh jointly leads the standings with Anish Giri of Holland.
After scoring their fifth victory on the trot, the Indian men maintained their joint lead with 10 points along with China, Vietnam and Hungary.
Teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India became the youngest chess world champion by beating defending champion Ding Liren of China on Thursday
Reigning world chess champion D Gukesh has stated that he is open to competing in all formats of chess, including the newly popular freestyle format, but believes that classical chess, with its rich history, will always hold the greatest significance. Despite concerns of a potential split in the sport between supporters of freestyle and classical chess, Gukesh sees no reason for division, highlighting the excitement of freestyle while acknowledging the importance of the traditional format's legacy.
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaise secured the WR Chess masters title after defeating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the Armageddon game following two draws in Classical chess during the final.
In the most awaited contest of the tournament, Gukesh took on Praggnanandhaa in the penultimate round.
India made history as both its men's and women's teams clinched their first-ever gold medals at the 45th Chess Olympiad. The men's team defeated Slovenia and the women's counterparts overcame Azerbaijan in the final round.
Indian Grandmasters D Gukesh and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi bowed out of the FIDE World Cup chess tournament after losing to Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov respectively in Baku on Wednesday.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand will lead India's charge at the online Nations Cup beginning on Tuesday, where some of the world's best players will face off amid the coronavirus pandemic which has thrown the sporting calendars out of gear. The six-team event, touted to the richest online team tournament, features all the big names in the game with World champion Magnus Carlsen being the only big gun missing from the line-up.
Giving prominence to experience over youthful exuberance, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand feels the three Indian participants remain far from winning the Candidates chess title, saying they "should first settle into the tournament."
Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali jumped into sole lead in the women's section
Carlsen wins 1st game of World Cup quarterfinal against Gukesh; Erigaisi outwits Praggnanandhaa to take lead
R Praggnanandhaa was the best Indian with an overall third place finish
Grandmaster D Gukesh endured a heartbreak in the final tie-breaker against Wei Yi of China and had to be content with a joint second place finish at the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
'It is truly unfathomable how this kid would come from a country with no chess culture and not only become World Champion, but inspire generations of Indian kids to push chess forward. The legend, @vishy64theking!'
Young GM R Praggnanandhaa on Friday won both rapid games to eliminate second-seeded Hikaru Nakamura to enter the last 16 of the FIDE World Cup chess tournament in Baku.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh shot into sole lead after defeating Firouzja Alireza of France in the 13th and penultimate round of Candidates' Chess tournament in Toronto on Saturday, his quest for the extraordinary placing him on the cusp of becoming the youngest ever World Championship contender.
