MIXED OUTING FOR INDIANS IN TURIN – ARMENIANS STILL IN LEAD
Rediff, India
May 31 2006
The Indians had a mixed outing in the eighth round of the 37th Chess
Olympiad in Turin with the men scoring a 2.5-1.5 victory over Bulgaria
and the women suffering defeat at the hands of Armenia.
While Viswanathan Anand played out his fifth draw on the trot –
settling for peace with former world junior champion Kiril Georgiev
of Bulgaria, National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered went
down against Alexander Delchev.
It was only thanks to a late onslaught by Krishnan Sasikiran and
Sandipan Chanda against Ivan Cheparinov and Vasily Spassov respectively
that the Indian men were able to get past unscathed.
Indian mainstay Koneru Humpy fumbled against Lilit Mkrtchian and
suffered her first defeat in the event as the Indian women lost to
Armenia by a 1-2 margin.
D Harika also went down while the lone saving grace was Swati Ghate
who won an engrossing battle on the third board to thwart a whitewash.
At the top of the tables, the Armenian men yet again proved that
they are the frontrunners this time with a comprehensive 3-1 victory
over Cuba.
The Russian men could only manage a 2-2 draw with Czech Republic which
meant that Armenia took a two point lead over their nearest rivals.
In the women’s section, Russia drew with Czech Republic raising
Ukraine’s title hopes. The result narrowed Czechs’ lead to half a
point. The Ukrainians cruised to an easy 2-1 victory over Hungary.