Date:17/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/17/stories/2008111756421700.htm

Sport - Chess

Indian women draw with Russia

NEW DELHI: The 11th seeded Indian women came up with a determined effort to hold top seed Russia 2-2 in the third round of the Chess Olympiad at Dresden, Germany, on Saturday.

Playing white, Asian champion Tania Sachdev and Swati Ghate twice put India ahead but Russia hit back through World champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and Nadezhda Kosintseva. This creditable draw has left India in the tied seventh spot with five others behind the six-team leaders’ pack.

Earlier, the men’s team expectedly toyed with El Salvador for a 3.5-0.5 victory and shared the lead with eight others. P. Hari Krishna continued to struggle and drew his game on the second board before the trio of K. Sasikiran, G. N. Gopal and Sandipan Chanda defeated low-rated rivals.

But the talking point of the day was the Indian women pulling off a sensational result despite the absence of World No. 2 K. Humpy.

Contrary to all expectations, Tania put India ahead by nailing Tatiana Nadezhda in 42 moves before World junior girls’ champion D. Harika surrendered to Alexandra in 61 moves. Swati downed Ekaterina Korbut on the fourth board to raise visions of a repeat Indian victory, over Russia, like in 2004. But Nadezhda ended Nisha Mohota’s resistance in 108 moves to leave the teams tied.

In fact, in 2004 too, Nadezhda had beaten Nisha when Humpy and S. Vijayalakshmi had played key roles in India’s 2-1 victory.

Norway stuns China

The day also saw the third-seeded Chinese men crash to a surprise 1.5-2.5 loss to Norway, led by wonder-kid Magnus Carlsen. It was Kjetil Lie’s stunning victory over Bu Xiangzhi on the second board that made the decisive difference. The other three boards were drawn.

Two other unexpected results also came in the open section when 20th seed Netherlands held seventh seed Azerbaijan 2-2, an effort matched by 35th seed Lithuania against eighth seed Israel.

The results (third round):

Open: India (9) beat El Salvador (6.5) 3.5-0.5 (K. Sasikiran bt Hector Leyva; P. Hari Krishna drew with A. Arias Lemmys; G. N. Gopal bt Eduardo Chavez Hector; Sandipan Chanda bt Nelson Martinez); Russia (8.5) bt Cuba (6) 3.5-0.5; Georgia (6.5) lost to Ukraine (7.5); China (7) lost to Norway (8.5) 1.5-2.5; Netherlands (8.5) drew with Azerbaijan (9) 2-2; Armenia (11) bt Faroe Islands (5.5) 4-0; Germany 1 (10) bt Malaysia (6.5) 3.5-0.5; Tajikistan (8.5) lost to Spain (9) 1-3.

Ladies: Russia (9) drew with India (7.5) 2-2 (Alexandra Kosteniuk bt D. Harika; Tatiana Kosintseva lost to Tania Sachdev; Nadezhda Kosintseva bt Nisha Mohota; Ekaterina Korbut lost to Swati Ghate); China (9) bt Netherlands (7) 2.5-1.5; Georgia (8) bt Israel (7) 1-2; Armenia (10) bt Germany 2 (5) 4-0; Venezuela (6.5) lost to Hungary (11) 0-4; Poland (10) bt Mexico (6) 4-0; Denmark (6.5) lost to Serbia (9) 0-4; Mongolia (5.5) lost to Ukraine (8.5) 1-3; Greece (6.5) lost to Indonesia (8.5) 1.5-2.5.

Leading pairings (fourth round):

Open: Russia-India; Ukraine-Armenia; Spain-Germany 1; Norway-England; Romania-Hungary; Azerbaijan-USA; Faroe-Islands-Netherlands; Malta-Poland.

Ladies: India-Germany 1; Hungary-Georgia; China-Armenia; Serbia-Poland; Indonesia-Russia; Ukraine-Lithuania; Mexico-Czech Republic; Denmark-Cuba; Netherlands-Kyrgyzstan.