The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand draws with Onischuk

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004

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Sport - Chess

Anand draws with Onischuk

MALLORCA, OCT. 18. World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand settled for an easy draw with Alexander Onischuk of United States on the top board in the fourth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad at Gran Casino here.

The Indian men's team added another half a point to their overnight tally of 9 with the draw, while most of their other games of this round were yet to be completed.

Anand played simple and effective chess enroute to the 24-move draw with Onischuk. Playing the white side of a Queen's Indian, Onischuk went for a complex set-up that promises white a miniscule advantage but Anand's deeper understanding gave little chance to him.

``I just played my normal chess, equalised and drew comfortably,'' said Anand after the game.

Indian men cruise

Thanks to a resurgent Abhijit Kunte and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the Indian men cruised to a 3-1 victory over Philippines in the third round.

The win took the Indian men's tally to nine points from three outings in the competition, which is being led by Ukraine which came up with yet another fine performance to trounce Czech Republic 4-0.

It's Kunte's turn

It turned out to be a good day for Kunte who scored a valuable point with black pieces for his team against International Master Emmanuel Senador. The game lasted 46 moves.

Ganguly, who was highly successful in the previous edition of the Olympiad at Bled, Slovenia, scored over GM-in-waiting Mark Paragua in a Sicilian Nazdorf game.

The top boards were drawn by Indians but not without interesting battles.

With Viswanathan Anand opting out for the second time in three days, some resourceful play by Sasikiran helped him draw against veteran Eugene Torre from a Nimzo Indian defence game where the latter played black.

Hari Krishna, like Kunte, went for the Berlin variation against Rogelio Antonio and also faced the closed set up and the latter played solidly to maintain the balance right till the very end. The peace was signed in just 26 moves.

Indian results (third round):

Men: K. Sasikiran drew with Eugene Torre; Antonio Rogelio drew with P. Hari Krishna; S.S. Ganguly bt Mark Paragua; Emmanuel Senador lost to A. Kunte.

Women: K. Humpy drew with Antoaneta Stefanova; Margarita Voiska lost to S. Vijayalakshmi; D. Harika drew with Emilia Djingarova.

Agencies

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