A heartening Olympiad for India

By Arvind Aaron

ISTANBUL, NOV. 13. The Indians finished their 34th Chess Olympiad in a historic manner. There was all-round improvement in the placings in both the men's and women's sections.

India also won an individual board prize for the first time in 10 years. The men's team powered its way to an all-time record placing of eighth, beating the previous best of 10th made in Novi Sad 1990.

WGM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, who scored a dashing 11/14 on the top board, bagged a silver medal, her first and India's first medal in the women's Olympiad. She remained undefeated and led India to an improved finishing of 13th in women, an improvement over last year. India won individual medals in Malta 1980 through Rafique Khan and in Novi Sad 1990 through Dibyendu Barua.

The Indian Airlines star from Chennai provided yet another surprise. She arrived in a traditional saree for the closing where she had the second best result on top board behind gold medal winner Victoria Cmilyte but ahead of world women's champion Xie Jun.

Besides these, India received both the category two prizes in men and women. Valery Salov and Abhay Thipsay received it on behalf of India. They were attractive porcelain plates. The

Olympiad is split into four categories in strength in men and women. India fell in category two in start rank in both, 31st seed in men and 24th seed in women.

Nobody remembers how you started but where you finished. In that respect, the men's team had a wonderful performance. ``We are delighted,'' said captain Devaki Prasad. But he was disappointed with the manner in which Barua lost his last two games with white. ``A finish in the top six would have been possible had we scored one more point,'' Prasad opined.

It is special since it is the cut off line for the World team championship. To enhance team performance team coach Valery Salov fielded the top four for the last few games under- utilising Prasad. That was when Barua wanted to take rest. Prasad said Salov accepted that as a mistake when the Olympiad was over.

Some of the last round results also helped India directly. Many favourite teams were not fighting as hard and went down to lower ranked teams. Examples are Holland, European champion Armenia etc. So, India tied with teams which gave weaker performances like China, Switzerland, Macedonia etc.

Although the Indians played consistently well and deserved this placing, they did not play teams in the inner ring of four boards. They did not play any of the medal winners, Russia, Germany or Ukraine.

Besides India's stunning team performance, IM Pentyala Harikrishna, 15, made a maiden GM norm of 10 games. Harikrishna did not sparkle but showed strength in not losing a game and holding his own against top flight opposition.

Vijayalakshmi's strength of character was displayed as she claimed a double honour from the contest. She made her men's IM title which is stronger than the Woman Grandmaster title and later won a silver medal for best performance on board one. After the first hour into the game on Sunday, the Lithuanian captain Romans Burtstein was confident that Cmilyte would win. The final verdict was a draw after seven hours.

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