Viswanathan Anand opened India's account against third seeded Israel with a quick draw against Boris Gelfand in the 12th round of the 36th Chess Olympiad at the Gran Casino in Mallorca, Spain on Wednesday.
The draw took the Indian men's team's tally to 28 points while Israel moved to 28.5.
India now must win all their remaining matches to be in medal contention in the event, which is being led by Ukraine.
Ukraine has so far maintained an all-win record, and with two more rounds to go, they are the sole leaders on 32 points.
Anand was quite business-like in his approach and quickly equalised with pieces against Gelfand, who employed the Catalan opening.
As an exponent of the system, Gelfand was expected to try harder, but as Anand completely neutralised white's slight initiative after his queen side breakthrough, the Israeli knew what was coming. The game lasted just 18 moves.
Indian pairings round 12 (Men): Boris Gelfand drew with Viswanathan Anand; Krishnan Sasikiran v/s Emil Sutovski; Boris Avrukh v/s P Harikrishna; Surya Sekhar Ganguly v/s Michal Roiz.