Baku 2016, 6: India seize the lead

India have taken the sole lead in Baku with Adhiban defeating L’Ami to maintain the Olympiad’s only 100% team record. The real challenge starts now, with the powerful US team up next after Fabiano Caruana made himself an American hero by beating Pavel Eljanov and putting an end to the Ukrainian charge. Nerves were obvious everywhere, and nowhere more so than in the crucial women’s showdown. Ukraine looked on course for an easy win over their rivals Russia, but blunders and tenacity saw Russia claw out a 2:2 draw.

For a video summary of the day's action check out GM Ilja Zaragatski's recap:

The key matches in both sections of the Olympiad in Round 6 were deceptive, with the team that first seemed to have the edge going on to draw or lose. The first surprise of the day was for 100% man Vidit to concede a 15-move draw with the white pieces to Loek van Wely.

It wasn't Vidit's day to shine, but this photo is too good to skip | photo: David Llada, Baku Chess Olympiad

After that it seemed as though Anish Giri had excellent chances of taking revenge for his Norway Chess loss to Harikrishna, but ultimately he was the one who had to force a draw by perpetual check.