Monday, Oct 28, 2002
Monday, Oct 28, 2002 |
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Chess
By Arvind Aaron
Indian men, seeded No.24 by Elo rating average scored a 3.5-0.5 win over Costa Rica with Grandmaster P.Harikrishna dropping a valuable half point on the top board to FIDE Master Leighton Williams. Our women team, seeded No.18 had a 2.5-0.5 win over Turkey with in-form player Meenakshi Subbaraman ceding a draw to IWM Nilufer Cinar in the second board. The highlight of the day was a 14-year old Costa Rican boy stealing a draw from world's elite player, Alexander Morozevich on the third board. IM Alejandro Ramirez rated 2421 came with a little present for World No.10 Morozevich, rated 2707. Exchanging souvenirs at the start of play is a Chess Olympiad tradition and Morozevich accepted the little memento but then could not stop the white player from making a draw. World No.1 ranked Garry Kasparov who rested himself from the round one game stood analysing the game in detail with another former world champion Alexander Khalifman was astonished by the chess ability of a teenaged boy from Costa Rica. The Russians had cleaned up three full points from the other boards with Grischuk, Khalifman and Rublevsky winning handily. Kasparov and Svidler were rested for this round. Harikrishna looked disappointed for giving up the draw. However the trainer of the Indian men's team, Evgeny Vladimir told The Hindu, "they (Wales) are weak but in the first round all teams are enthusiastic, so this is only a good result.'' Harikrishna played on the top table as Sasikiran was rested for this easy match. Harikrishna played white, and in a Bogo-Indian defence, black established what he wanted and even planted a knight dangerously. Harikrishna fought back and in a queen and bishops ending, the player from Wales got perpetual checks with his queen. Harikrishna could not used his extra bishop and accepted the draw. On the second board, Kunte was lucky to win when Richard Dineley held a space advantage and let go that with a pawn advance on the king bishop file. Kunte played the Sicilian defence as black and claimed the point when white overstepped the time limit by failing to complete the 40th move. At that stage, Kunte was in a winning position. Ramesh played the Rossolimo Attack with the white pieces against the Sicilian defence. Soon, the Chennai player who is the reigning British Champion won pawns in the middlegame. Richard Jones manoeuvred his rooks dangerously around white's king but Ramesh kept his cool in defence to collect the point in a rook ending. "If I accept the rook sacrifice, my opponent gets a draw,'' Ramesh said. About the day, Ramesh said, "we thought we might lose on Kunte's board and sweep 3-1, but the results on the top two boards turned to our benefit.'' Curiously for the Indians, all games ended in reverse order. Experienced Thipsay put the team ahead on the fourth board with an easy 45-move win with the black pieces against Sven Zeidler after reaching a rook ending with two extra pawns. Thipsay won pawns and in the control he came up with some tactical surprises from his opponent but quelled them to win. Woman Grandmaster Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman gave India a flying start with a comfortable 43-move win against Asli Bayrak with the white pieces. It was a Slav defence and Vijayalakshmi won a pawn on the queen side and tacitly exchanged off king side pawns for queen side pawns to win with ease. Vijayalakshmi's younger sister, Meenakshi figured in a long 45-move draw against Nilufer Cinar with the black pieces from a Petroff's defence. The game was in balance at the end after the Indian had to be cautious in the middle game. "My opening was bad,'' Meenakshi admitted. After giving the board order Meenakshi developed a headache and cited it as a reason for giving a draw. But her opponent Cinar was the best player for Turkey and they have fielded her in the second board to deceive is truth. Debutant Aarthie Ramaswamy of Wipro started her Olympic campaign with a win with good technique in the pawn ending after her tactics got her a pawn against Serap Keskin's Sicilian defence. Aarthie had two connected pawns on the queen side and against a protected passed pawn of black. She timed her king well to plan a checkmate when black resigned on move 53.The colourful opening ceremony exhibited the cultural side of the hosts. The logo of the Olympiad, horse, was brought on stage and paraded as speeches included those of honorary FIDE President Florencio Campomanes and others. On India's behalf, captain of the men's team Sasikiran and Vijayalakshmi attended the meetings last night.Two grandmasters, Alexander Baburin of Ireland and Jonathan Speelman of England have sent an open letter to the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov asking him to suspend drug testing until FIDE has signed up to the new WADA document. The letter is signed by 29 other grandmasters and prominent among them are Nigel Short (Eng), Loek Van Wely (Ned), Joel Lautier (Fra). Baburin told The Hindu this afternoon that it was decided in the captain's meeting last night that there will be drug testing in the second half and no fines but all players will have to comply. Those failing to comply with the test will be deemed to have failed the test. Asked why the letter was so mild, he said he and Speelman were for a much stronger one but like Indian curry it had to be made mild to suit more people to sign. The players were worried that the list of banned substances is very long and most teams do not have a medical expert travelling with them. Thus, a player may be forced to sign a complicated contract, without proper understanding of it and so assent to a potentially ruinous fine. The all-time high entries have left the organisers at unease. The playing auditorium is being extended for this reason and the organisers are planning to restrict entries into the playing hall. Among those restricted into the playing hall are journalists. The pressroom has excellent facilities among all previous Olympiads but is 100 metres away from the venue making coverage a distant one. The Olympiad is played over 14 rounds and this time there are two free days, November 3 and 9. The men event is played on four boards and women event on three boards. The team scoring maximum points wins. Many top teams like Russia, Ukraine, England dropped half a point and won by 3.5-0.5 margins. Morozevich for Russia, Ivanchuk for Ukraine and Short for England were held to draws. Defending champion and the top seed China made a clean sweep over Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-0, while second-seeded Georgia was not as efficient dropping a draw on the second board of Nino Khurtsidze. In sharp contrast to men's results, many women's matches ended in clean sweeps. The Olympiad was inaugurated by Boris Kutin, organiser of the Olympiad and FIDE President for Europe on the women's board of Slovenia. Bangladesh aided by Rani Hamid's upset win held former Olympiad champion Hungary to a 1.5-1.5 draw. The results: First round: Men: Costa Rica lost to Russia 0.5-3.5, Hungary bt Venezuela 4-0, Mongolia lost to Ukraine 0.5-3.5, Israel bt ICSC 3.5-0.5, Qatar lost to Holland 1-3, England bt Slovenia B 3.5-0.5, Turkey lost to China 1.5-2.5, Germany bt Andorra 3-1, Dominican Republic lost to Armenia 0.5-3.5, USA bt IPCA 4-0, New Zealand lost to France 0-4, Poland bt Bolivia 4-0, Tunisia lost to Slovenia A 0.5-3.5, Romania bt Qatar 4-0, Uruguay lost to Georgia 0-4, Sweden bt Cyprus 3-1, India bt Wales 3.5-0.5. Women: Bosnia and Herzegovina lost to China 0-3, Georgia bt Canada 2.5-0.5, Macedonia lost to Russia 0-3, Ukraine bt Mexico 2.5-0.5, Slovenia C lost to Bulgaria 1-2, Romania bt Brazil 3-0, Singapore lost to Yugoslavia 0-3, France drew with Iran 1.5-1.5, IBCA lost to Poland 0.5-2.5, Germany bt Austria 3-0, Kyrgystan lost to USA 0-3, England bt Peru 2.5-0.5, Bangladesh drew with Hungary 1.5-1.5, Vietnam bt Colombia 2-1, India bt Turkey 2.5-0.5.
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