He blundered his queen from a winning position, which led to a 1.5-2.5 loss to Uzbekistan. It was India’s first defeat in a team event since 2022. Bengaluru: Nihal Sarin looked devastated at the board on Monday.
In a complicated position, Nihal’s 36…Kxg5? allowed Yakubboev to seize the initiative with 38.Ne6+!. After 39.gxh4+, Black’s queen was soon lost and the game slipped away. In 2022, it was reigning world champion D Gukesh who blundered against Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov from a winning position and lost a game in a match that decided the gold medal. Uzbekistan became Olympiad champions that year and India’s turn arrived in 2024.
Nihal’s game against Nodirbek Yakubboev was the only decisive result in a match between two of the strongest teams in the competition. With Black, the Indian could have chosen caution. A draw would have been respectable and, in a tight team match, easily defensible. With the other three boards drawn, Nihal’s defeat decided the match. Soon after, Gukesh became world champion.
The Player of the Day ritual is one that the Indian team has been following since the 2024 Olympiad, where every day team members pick the player whose contribution they believe stood out. In Wednesday’s Round 7 face-offs, India Open team plays England while the women play Germany. Usually, the honour might naturally follow a win. It would have been easy, then, to dwell on the mistake. The team chose to go the other way.
When the Indian team sat down to pick its Player of the Day on Monday night, the choice was unanimous: Nihal. On Monday, it went to the player who had lost.
