Indian Teams Bounce Back in Chess Olympiad
TROMSO | AUG 07, 2014
Brushing aside the fourth round debacle, Indian men and women’s teams bounced back with resounding victories over Montenegro and Austria respectively in the fifth round of the 41st Chess Olympiad now underway here.
On what turned out to be a good day for the men, Parimarjan Negi, S P Sethuraman and Krishnan Sasikiran came up with fine victories while B Adhiban had to settle for a draw against lower-ranked opponents on all board.
Starting with white pieces, Negi scored over Nikola Djukic quite easily while S P Sethuraman continued with his fine act in the event and added Dragisa Blagojevic to his list of scalps.
Krishnan Sasikiran was also at his best in crushing Milan Drasko but Adhiban could not make it a clean sweep as he struggled before drawing with Dragan Kosic.
Resting Tania Sachdev, the Indian eves dominated their Austrian counterparts on all boards and the 4-0 victory was a huge morale booster ahead of the first rest day.
Veronika Exler was on the receiving end against highest rated Indian girl Dronavalli Harika and Esha Karavade found her winning touch at the expense of Katherina Newrkla.
A struggling Mary Ann Gomes was the other Indian to strike form as she outplayed Julia Novkovic and on the fourth board Padimi Rout continued to impress defeating Elisabeth Hapala.
With six rounds still to come, the Indian men improved their position to joint 25th and another victory can take them closer to the top ten. The Indian women team jumped up to joint 19th spot.
There were some big games in the day as world champion Magnus Carlsen, representing the hosts was pitted against Levon Aronian from the defending champion Armenia. The game ended in a draw though the match was taken by Armenia by 2.5-1.5 margin. MORE
Top seeded Russian men failed to capitalise on a brilliant victory by Vladimir Kramnik against Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov as Sergey Karjakin suffered a shock defeat on the second board to allow Bulgaria to level score.
As many as seven teams share the lead in the open section on nine points each. They are Azerbaijan, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Uzbekistan and Georgia.
In the women’s event, China Hungary and Russia emerged as the co-leaders with a perfect ten points. China defeated Indonesia by a massive 3.5-0.5 margin while Hungary ended the dream run of Iranian girls winning by 2.5-1.5.
Important results round five Open: Azerbaijan (9) drew with Serbia (9) 2-2; Russia (8) drew with Bulgaria (9) 2-2; China (8) drew with Netherlands (8) 2-2; Ukraine (7) lost to Uzbekistan (9) 1.5-2.5; Israel (7) lost to Cuba (9) 1.5-2.5; Kazakhstan (9) beat Turkey (7) 3-1; Georgia (9) beat Belgium (7) 3-1; India (7) beat Montenegro (5) 3.5-0.5 (Parimarjan Negi beat Nikola Djukic; Dragisa Blagojevic lost to S P Sethuraman; K. Sasikiran beat Milan Drasko; Dragan Kosic drew with B Adhiban);
Women: Indonesia (8) lost to China (10) 0.5-3.5; Hungary (10) beat Iran (8) 2.5-1.5; Russia (10) beat Georgia (8) 2.5-1.5; Spain (7) lost to Netherlands (9) 1.5-2.5; Serbia (9) leads Ukraine (7) 2.5-0.5; Poland (9) leads Kazakhstan (7) 2.5-0.5; France (8) beat Germany (6) 3-1; Belarus (6) lost to Romania (8) 1.5-2.5; Austria (5) lost to India (7) 0-4 (Veronika Exler lost to D. Harika; Eesha Karavade beat Katherina Newrkla; Julia Novkovic lost to Mary Ann Gomes; Padmini Rout beat Elisabeth Hapala).
Ramesh is doing a good job.