R Vaishali lost her game to Poland's Aleksandra Maltsevskaya. (Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE)The Chess Olympiad has always been a slow burner. The 11-round Swiss system tests you in every way possible, and the opponents only get tougher with each round. It has a way of lulling you into a false sense of security with weaker opponents first and then the storm.For the reigning champion Indian women’s team, the storm came in the form of Poland. Having defeated the women’s team at both the 2022 and 2024 Olympiads, Poland have been the Achilles’ heel for India.On Sunday, history repeated itself. The defending champions faltered for the first time in this edition in Samarkand, dropping two crucial points to Poland and dealing a serious blow to their title defence.With International Master (IM) Oliwia Kiolbasa leading the way on the top board for Poland, their side adopted a shrewd strategy, deploying Grandmaster (GM) Monika Socko, their most experienced player, on the last board.To counter the threat from Socko, the Indian side captained by Swayams Mishra went with the experience of Vantika Agrawal over the current form of Savitha Shri B on the last board. The 19-year-old Savitha, making her Olympiad debut in this edition, had been on fire, winning all her games on Board 4 with a perfect 4.0/4 before being dropped for the Poland clash.The decision might have been logical, going with experience to hold off Socko, and Vantika did her job by holding the veteran Polish player to a draw on Board 4, taking a crucial half point from the match.Regardless, India lost the round elsewhere. It was on the board of World Championship challenger R Vaishali, who couldn’t sustain the pressure with the black pieces against IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya on Board 2.Story continues below this adOn the top board, Kiolbasa, whose claim to fame was a 9.0/9 score at the Chennai Olympiad, was too solid for Koneru Humpy to find any chances with the white pieces. Both players engaged in the non-committal line of the King’s Indian Attack, playing with nearly 98 per cent accuracy. The game, which was always expected to produce no result, eventually ended in a threefold repetition in just 27 moves, with plenty of time left on both clocks.Another game that ended in a clean draw was between Divya Deshmukh and Klaudia Kulon on Board 3. Kulon was in red-hot form, having entered the clash with 4.0/4, but Divya brought her A-game to deny any chances, holding her opponent to a 0.5-0.5 draw in a game that went till 51 moves.This meant that with three games ending in draws, Vaishali was left to play only for a win. The only problem was that she had anything but a fighting position, one where even a draw was way out of reach. A ruthless Maltsevskaya ensured there wasn’t much Vaishali could do in the lost endgame, handing the Indian a slow death and taking home two big points from the gold medallists following a 2.5-1.5 win.Monday brings an even tougher round with India set to face the might USA in Round 6.