Chennai, Aug 14 (IANS): On a day when the dragon nation China brought the Olympiad chess gold medal, India the other major country in the continent crushed Uzbekistan 3.5 -0.5 and is in the contention for a medal in the Norwegian city of Trosme.

China defeated Poland 3-1 to claim the gold medal in the 11th and final round of the 41st World Chess Olympiad, according to information received here.

The 19th seeded Indian open team is tied with three other teams (Hungary, Russia, and Azerbaijan) for a silver or bronze.

"It is wonderful performance by Indian team. At the moment they are tied from 2-4th place. If the tie break score is favourable for India then we might even get the silver medal," World No.26 Indian Grandmaster P. Harikrishna told IANS.

According to Harikrishna, not losing even a single game on the second, third and fourth boards was the most critical aspect.

"All the players played well and my hearty congratulations to the team," Harikrishana said.