Date:14/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/14/stories/2008111457661900.htm

Sport - Chess

India rests Sasikiran for opener

NEW DELHI: India decided to rest its spearhead K. Sasikiran in the campaign-opener against Canada as the Chess Olympiad began at Dresden, Germany, on Thursday.

India has fielded P. Hari Krishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, G. N. Gopal and Sandipan Chanda, in that order, on the four boards.

Canada, which stunned India 2.5-1.5 when the teams met in the penultimate round of the last edition at Turin in 2006, has fielded Mark Bluvshtien, Pascal Charbonneau, who stunned Viswanathan Anand, Igor Zugic and Nikolay Noritsyn. For India, Hari and Gopal will play with white pieces.

In the ladies section, 11th seeded India plays 38th ranked Switzerland. Here, India has field its strongest combination comprising D. Harika (white), Tania Sachdev, Nisha Mohota (white) and Swati Ghate.

The not-so-formidable Swiss team has Gundula Heinatz (rating 2227), Monika Seps (2203), Barbara Hund (2216) and Anastasia Gavrilova (2078).

Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Peter Leko (Hungary) are among the leading men staying away from the opening round action.

First round (leading pairings):

Open: Russia-Switzerland; Germany 1-Scotland; Vietnam-Ukraine; China-Philippines; Macedonia-Azerbaijan; Hungary-Iran; Germany-Bulgaria; France-Montenegro; Latvia-Israel; Armenia-Italy; Iceland-USA; Germany 3-Spain; India-Canada.

Ladies: Russia-Azerbaijan; Argentina-Ukraine; China-Croatia; England-Georgia; France-Moldova; Italy-Armenia; USA-Montenegro; Kazakhstan-Hungary; Poland-Austria; Ecuador-Serbia; India-Switzerland.