India, which has qualified for the quarterfinals, will face France in the fifth and final preliminary match later on Wednesday. D Harika, the top Indian player, held Aleksandra Goryachkina to a draw as did Mary Ann Gomes against Polina Shuvalova but Tania Sachdev and R Vaishali suffered defeats as the team lost to Russia in the fourth round late on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian women had beaten a strong Armenia 2.5-1.5 in the third round. Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni notched up the important wins to set up the victory over Armenia. Harika had settled for a draw against Elina Danielian while the talented, young Vaishali lost to Lilit Mkrtchian.

France 🇫🇷 defeated Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 today at the @FIDE_chess World Women’s Team Championship in #Sitges and has a chance to advance to quarter finals tomorrow if they beat India 🇮🇳, or even if there are some draws. A difficult 5th match, but confident in their chances… pic.twitter.com/Nx29Q90ZWl

— Sunway Chess Open (@SunwayChessOpen) September 28, 2021

India and Armenia now have 5 points each after four rounds behind Russia (8). A team gets two points for winning a match and one for a draw.

In the India-Russia encounter, the higher rated Katernya Lagno and Alexandra Kosteniuk put it across Tania Sachdev and Vaishali to assert the Russian team’s superiority. After drawing 2-2 with Azerbaijan in the opener, India had beaten Spain 2.5-1.5 in round two.