The 37th-ranked Indian men went into the match without captain Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua and GM-norm holder Abhijit Kunte, who took rest. But GM Pravin Thipasy and debutants Krishnan Sasikiran, V Saravanan and Anup Deshmukh scored comfortable victories over their 92nd-ranked rivals.

Thipsay won a pawn in the middle game against P Rowe and won the ending of a bishop against knight from the centre counter game. The Indian GM won a second pawn by move 40.

Sasikiran also won two pawns in an Italian opening against P Cutter on the second board before taking the game to a double rook and bishop versus knight ending.

Deshmukh was even more authoritative in his 26-move win over B McManus on the fourth board after winning a piece on move nine in an English opening game.

Saravanan beat TManzanilla on the third board in the Sicilian dragon after getting the bishop pair advantage. He created passer pawns on the queenside and won in 40 moves.

For the Indian women, Pallavi Shah registered a quick 26-move win over Shaughenssey on the second board. Pallavi won a piece on the 10th move and then an exchange to score a fine victory.

Bhagyashree Thipsay adopted the Caro-Kann defence while beating D Quinn on the top board and Swati Ghate completed the rout with a 36-move win over Ul Leighless in an irregular Queens Indian defence.

Isreali teams which played in the morning because of a religious ceremony scored 3.5-0.5 and 2-1 wins over Venezuela (men) and Azerbaijan (women) respectively.