Sunday, Nov 10, 2002
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Chess
By Arvind Aaron
China did not field the World women's champion Zhu Chen, and made the draw after World Cup champion Xu Yuhua lost to Natalia Zhukova on the top board. The Chinese enjoy a half-point lead, with 27 points. Georgia and Russia are just behind with 26.5 points. Georgia was defeated 2-1 by Bulgaria and Russia was held to a draw on all boards by Vietnam. Which order they would finish will be decided in the final round on Sunday. Saturday is a free day. None of the Georgians have won a single game in the last two rounds and they seem to be panicking. A low scoring final round will decide the winner. Russia has never won the women's Olympiad and now it has chances. China is looking for a hat-trick and Georgia is looking forward to regaining the title it last won at Yerevan 1996. Just like talks between nations which are often pre-agreed by the department secretaries of the nations who then let the Ministers of the concerned countries sign up the deal, chess deals are also no different. The Russians put their best combine into action against the best four of fourth-seeded Israel. Within half an hour and before the middlegame was reached in some, draw offers were made and accepted briskly as they made 2-2. Russia made this result after Hungary drew. Russia reached 36.5 points keeping its two-point distance as Hungary also acted out the same farce on the second table. Russia wants to keep its gold medal even if it means making peace at the table. Kasparov drew with Gelfand, Grischuk drew with Smirin, Khalifman drew with Sutovsky and Morozevich drew with Avrukh. All Russians were way ahead in rating above their Israeli counterparts. Israel is on 31.5. The Hungarian surrender was hard to understand. The Hungarians did not try to race ahead but seemed secure or felt happy with a 2-2 draw against ninth-seeded Armenia. It was all familiar, draw on all boards, Leko drew with Akopian, Almasi drew with Lputian, Gyimesi drew with Asrian and Acs Peter drew with Sargisian. Hungary is in second place on 34.5 points and Armenia moved to 32 points. The Indian teams had a losing day with the men losing to lower-ranked Switzerland 1.5-2.5, while the women, who had done well in the last few rounds was beaten by the United States 1-2. The winner for India was Surya Sekhar Ganguly and the losers were Ramesh, Sasikiran and Swathi Ghate. The Indian men have 29.5 points after this defeat and the women have 22.5 points. The Indian men will need a big 3.5-0.5 win in the last round to reach the magic number, 33, they reached at Istanbul in 2000. Friday and round 13 did not combine well for India. India faced its immediate next seed in men and on the top board, Sasikiran had the white pieces against veteran Korchnoi. After the opening phase from a Nimzo-Indian defence, Korchnoi as black sacrificed a pawn on the king file to get compensation in the form of pressure on the queen file and easy access to his rook. Sasikiran was in trouble all through this game against his 71-year-old opponent. Black got several privileges including doubling his rooks on the seventh rank. Then Korchnoi sucked the white king into a mating net and Sasikiran resigned on the 36th turn before being checkmated. The first game to be completed for the Indians ended in a draw on the Harikrishna table. He drew in 32 moves with the black pieces against higher-rated Yannick Pelletier from a Semi-Slav defence. They reached a harmless bishop and knight ending with no weakness to play on and a draw was agreed on white's proposal. India's new Grandmaster Ganguly had white pieces against Joe Gallagher on board three and faced a Sicilian defence, Najdorf variation. On the 21st move, black opted for a tactical challenge and lost a rook for minor piece. They say one mistake leads to another. Gallagher then sacrificed a knight on move 26 to shred some of the clothing from the white king. On move 33, black gave up a bishop and tried to check the white king perpetually. Ganguly escaped and walked the king around his rooks. At move 40, white was a rook and two minor pieces ahead when his opponent finally resigned as India drew parity at 1.5-1.5 with Ramesh's game in progress. Ramesh played the Sicilian defence as black against Florian Jenni, rated eight Elo more than him. White did not play for the initiative and black equalised fairly easily and quickly. Black sat in a rock like defence with his two rooks and bishop giving no play for white. They reached a rook and minor piece ending where Ramesh grew greedy at one point and exchanged his bishop for a knight to win a pawn. Jenni used his passed king pawn to collect Ramesh's rook and win the match 2.5-1.5 for Switzerland in 67 moves. Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman made a quick 11-move draw against International Woman Master Irina Krush on the first board with the black pieces. Her personal score went up to nine points from 12 games and she is in the run for a medal if she wins her last round. If the Olympiad had stopped with round 12, she would have got the bronze medal for the third best score on the women's top board. Elena Donaldson helped America win by beating Swathi Ghate in 38 moves with the white pieces after exploiting a doubled pawn to win a rook for minor piece. Elena, then Akhmilovskaya, had defected from the Soviet Union during the Thessaloniki 1988 Olympiad by marrying the American men's team captain IM John Donaldson. Elena dominated the game against Swathi from the word go and out-manoeuvred the Indian girl. Aarthie Ramaswamy, who had to play only whites in the last three games, faced the Sicilian defence of veteran Baginskaite. Aarthie castled queen side and went for a pawn offensive on the king side. Pawns identical, the American player held the upper hand due to greater piece activity, while Aarthie was on the defensive. On the 40th move, the Chennai girl who is a former world under-18 girls' champion, attacked the black queen and made a draw to help minimise India's loss. The results (round 13): Men: Russia (36.5) drew with Israel (31.5) 2-2; Hungary (34.5) drew with Armenia (32) 2-2; Croatia (32) bt China (30.5) 3-1; Georgia (33) bt Canada (29.5) 3.5-0.5; Poland (31) drew with Yugoslavia (31) 2-2; England (31) drew with Germany (30.5) 2-2; India (29.5) lost to Switzerland (30) 1.5-2.5. Women: China (27) drew with Ukraine (23.5) 1.5-1.5; Bulgaria (24) bt Georgia (26.5) 2-1; Russia (26.5) drew with Vietnam (24.5) 1.5-1.5; Armenia (23.5) lost to Poland (25) 1-2; USA (24) bt India (22.5) 2-1.
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