The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Indian men whip Cyprus, women held by Vietnam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Indian men whip Cyprus, women held by Vietnam

NEW DELHI: Needing to make amends for the disastrous loss to Morocco, India rightly whipped lowly Cyprus 4-0 before the arrival of spearhead Viswanathan Anand in the second round of the Chess Olympiad in Turin on Monday.

The easy victories for the quartet of K. Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda was a foregone conclusion as Cyprus, ranked 120 in the field, had three players under the rating of 2200 and an unrated challenger on the third board.

India, with five points, now plays Mongolia that held ninth seeded Azerbaijan 2-2 in the first round and trounced Tunisia 3.5-0.5. With a full-strength India desperate for big victories, Anand will play on the top board against Cegmed Batchuluun who is rated 500 points below at 2303. Mongolia has decided to field its lone GM Bazar Hatanbaatar (2433) on the fourth board against Ganguly.

Meanwhile, the Indian ladies drew Vietnam 1.5-1.5 after K. Humpy won her second successive game. She needed just 27 moves to put India ahead. However, Swati mishandled a promising position to lose in 36 moves before Harika settled for an 88-move draw on the second board. India now plays Croatia.

The results (second round):

Open: Latvia (4) lost to Russia (8) 0-4; Netherlands (7) bt Bangladesh (5) 3-1; Bulgaria (6) drew with Indonesia (6) 2-2; Estonia (5.5) lost to Spain (6.5) 1.5-2.5; Germany (7.5) bt Canada (4.5) 3.5-0.5; Australia (7) bt Romania (5) 3-1; Iran (5.5) lost to Gerogia (6.5) 1.5-0.5; Qatar (4.5) lost to Poland (7.5) 0.5-3.5; India (5) bt Cyprus (1.5) 4-0 (K. Sasikiran bt Antonis Antoniou; Polydoros Kassinopoullos lost to P. Hari Krishna; Surya Shekhar Ganguly bt Vasileios Aristotelous; Panikos Savva lost to Sandipan Chanda).

Women: Kazkhstan (3.5) lost to Russia (5.5) 0.5-2.5; Belarus (3) lost to Georgia (5) 1-2; Hungary (5.5) bt Switzerland (3.5) 2.5-0.5; Estonia (4) lost to USA (5) 1-2; China (6) bt England (3) 3-0; Croatia (4.5) drew with Armenia (4.5) 1.5-1.5; Colombia (3.5) lost to Italy `A' (5.5) 0.5-2.5; Vietnam (4.5) drew with India (4.5) 1.5-1.5 (Ngyuen Thi Thanh An lost to K. Humpy; D. Harika drew with Hoang Thi Bao Tram; Le Thanh Tu bt Swati Ghate); Bulgaria (5) bt Iran (4) 2-1; Australia (3.5) lost to Romania (5.5) 0.5-2.5.

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