The Indian men suffered a shocking 1.5-2.5 defeat at the hands of Poland while the women held higher ranked Georgia to a draw in the first round of World Teams Chess Championships, here.
It turned out to be a bad day overall for the spirited Indian men team even as highest rated Indian Vidit Gujrathi provided a crucial full point on the top board against Radoslav Wojtaszek.
The lead diminished as B Adhiban and National champion Murali Karthikeyan lost to Duda Jan Krzysztof and Kacper Pioren respectively while Parimarjan Negi played out a draw against Bartel Mateusz.
The loss against marginally lower ranked Poland is not good news for Indian men that is fighting to better its best- ever bronze medal performance here.
For the records, the Indian think-tank rested Krishnan Sasikiran for this round.
The Indian men might have missed it but the women made up by holding Georgia to a draw.
Grandmaster D Harika led from the front on the top board with some luck aiding her as she rose back from a difficult position to beat Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia.
Eesha Karavade played out a draw against Lela Javakhishvili in what was a keenly contested game.
On the third board, Padmini Rout tried hard but could not get past Bela Khotenashvili and S Vijayalakshmi spoiled a winning endgame and went down to Nino Batsiashvili to let Georgia get off with a draw in the opener.
The World Team Championships are round-robin competition between 10 best teams in the world based on continental and Olympiad rankings.
The Indian men and women team had qualified for the event by virtue of some excellent performance in the last chess Olympiad at Baku in 2016 by finishing fourth and fifth respectively.
The biggest contest in the women's section was the match between China and Russia and the Russian eves won handsomely by a huge 3-1 margin.
While that gives an edge to Russia, it remains to be seen if they can continue with the same momentum against lesser teams.
The defending champion in women's section is Georgia.
In other results in the women's section, Ukraine scored over United States that's fielded a highly depleted team compared to the Olympiad in both open and women's section while Poland and Vietnam scored regulation victories over Azerbaijan and Vietnam respectively.
In the open section, Russia and China crushed Turkey and Belarus respectively by 3.5-0.5 margin but the Ukrainians were held to a shocking 2-2 draw by Turkey.
In the other contest United States beat Norway by a minimal 2.5-1.5 margin.
Results after Round 1 Open: India lost to Poland 1.5-2.5; (Vidit Gujrathi beat Radoslav Wojtaszek; Duda Jan Krzysztof beat B Adhiban; Murali Karthikeyan lost to Kacper Pioren; Bartel Mateusz drew with Parimarjan Negi); China beat Belarus 3.5-0.5; USA beat Norway 2.5-1.5; Egypt lost to Russia 0.5- 3.5; Turkey drew with Urkaine 2-2.
Women: Indian drew with Georgia 2-2 (D Harika beat Nana Dzagnidze; Lela Javakhishvili drew with Eesha Karavade; Padmini Rout drew with Bela Khotenashvili; Nino Batsiashvili beat S Vijayalkshmi); USA lost to Ukraine 1.5-2.5; Poland beat Azerbaijan 3.5-0.5; Egypt lost to Vietnam 0-4; Russia beat China 3-1.
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