The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Hari Krishna scores as India overcomes Spain

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Sunday, Oct 24, 2004

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Sport - Chess

Hari Krishna scores as India overcomes Spain

By Rakesh Rao

MALLORCA, OCT. 23. Alexie Shirov is Viswanathan Anand's bunny. And the former Soviet knows it only too well. So it did not come as a surprise on Saturday, when Shirov looked pleased as a winner after the drawn top-board clash of the India-Spain `A' eighth round match in the Chess Olympiad.

This was before P. Hari Krishna scripted a tie-deciding victory over Miguel Illescas. Earlier, K. Sasikiran drew with Francisco Vallejo and Surya Shekhar Ganguly felt like kicking himself after mishandling a completely winning position and drew by a sequence of perpetual checks on the black king.

India's 2.5-1.5 victory, after a loss to leader Ukraine by a similar margin, raised its tally to 21 points. Ukraine lead with 24 points after whipping Bulgaria 3.5-0.5 on the top table.

In the women's section, India happily broke its sequence of three successive draws to tame eighth seed France 2-1 and reached 15.5 points. S. Vijayalakshmi converted the advantage of having a rook for knight for a second-board victory while Humpy and Nisha drew easily with black pieces.

Hari's victory in 58 moves of Slav Defence came after Illescas traded a rook for two minor pieces. The young Indian exploited the lack of coordination among Illescas's pieces and won a knight before enlarging his rook-for-knight advantage to win.

Shirov holds Anand

Earlier the much-awaited clash between Shirov and Anand ended on equal terms. "Anand has beaten me so many times, with both colours. So it is okay for me to take a draw," said Shirov. A little later, Anand pointed out, "I surprised him with the line I played against (Gata) Kamsky in 1995."

The 24-move draw came after Anand had knocked Shirov out of his prepared lines after adopting the Open Spanish variation of Ruy Lopez. Shirov, reading the situation well, chose to pull down the shutters and agreed to split the point.

On Friday, India's six-win streak ended after Kunte's otherwise reliable Berlin Defence was so convincingly smashed by Ukrainian youngster Sergey Karjakin in the only decisive match of the top-table clash. Kunte's tame surrender, coupled with Hari's missed opportunity with white pieces against Pavel Eljanov and draws in Anand-Vassily Ivanchuk and Sasikiran-Ruslan Ponomariov matches led to India's six-win run coming to a halt.

In the ladies section, India proved equal to third seed United States but again, this tie never rose beyond mediocrity. In some ways it was satisfying because the U.S. had proved stronger in the previous edition and also because on every board the Indians faced higher rated rivals.

The results:

Men: Eighth round: Bulgaria (20) lost to Ukraine (25) 0.5-2.5; Spain `A' (20.5) lost to India (21) (Shirov drew with V. Anand; K. Sasikiran drew with Vallejo Pons Francisco; Miguel Illescas lost to P. Hari Krishna; Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew with Roberto Cifuentes). Russia (22) bt Armenia (21) 2.5-1.5; France (20) drew with Poland (20.5) 2-2; United States (20.5) bt Azerbaijan (19.5); Israel (19.5) drew with Moldova (19.5); Netherlands (19) lost to Georgia (20) 1.5-2.5; China (20) bt Cuba (19) 2.5-1.5; Serbia Montenegro (19.5) drew with Czech Republic (19) 2-2; Slovakia (19) drew with Estonia (19).

Women: Poland (15.5) lost to China (20.5) 1-2; Lithuania (16.5) bt England (15) 2-1 (in progress; Hungary (16) bt Bulgaria (14.5); Kazakhstan (14) lost to Russia (15.5) 0.5-2.5; United States (15.5) bt Armenia (14.5) 2-1; France (14.5) lost to India (15.5) 1-2 (Almira Skripchenko drew with K. Humpy; S. Vijayalakshmi bt Marie Sebag; Sophie Millet drew with Nisha Mohota); Ukraine (15.5) bt Sweden (14.5) 2-1; Azerbaijan (13.5) lost to Georgia (14.5) 1-2; Netherlands (13.5) lost to Israel (14.5); Romania (13.5) lost to Serbia Montenegro (14.5).

Seventh round: Men: India (18.5) lost to Ukraine (21.5) 1.5-2.5 (V. Anand drew with Vassily Ivanchuk; Ruslan Ponomariov drew with K. Sasikiran; P. Hari Krishna drew with Pavel Eljanov; Sergey Karjakin bt Abhijit Kunte). Azerbaijan (18) lost to Spain `A' (19) 1.5-2.5; Russia (19.5) lost to Bulgaria (19.5); Armenia (19.5) bt Israel (17.5); Georgia (17.5) drew with Cuba (17.5) 2-2; France (18) bt Slovakia (17); Poland (18.5) bt Philippines (16) 3-1; Greece (16.5) lost to Serbia Montenegro (17.5) 1.5-2.5; Argentina (16.5) lost to China (17.5) 1.5-2.5; Netherlands (17.5) bt England (16.5) 2.5-1.5.

Women: China (18.5) bt France (13.5) 2.5-0.5; Bulgaria (13.5) drew with Russia (13.5) 1.5-1.5; Ukraine (13.5) drew with Armenia (13.5) 1.5-1.5; India (13.5) drew with United States (13.5) 1.5-1.5 (K. Humpy drew with Zsuza Polgar; Irina Krush drew with S. Vijayalakshmi; D. Harika drew with Anna Zatonskih); England (14) bt Spain `B' (11) 3-0; Germany (11.5) lost to Lithuania (14.5) 0-3; Germany (11.5) lost to Lithuania (14.5) 0-3; Poland (14.5) bt Cuba (11.5) 3-0; Georgia (12.5) drew with Romania (12.5) 1.5-1..5; Slovakia (12) lost to Hungary (14) 0.5-2.5; Iran (12) lost to Sweden (13.5).

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