TURIN: It turned out to be another testing day for the Indians at the Olympiad. In search of a fruitful outing after suffering a painful defeat at the hands of defending champion Ukraine in the previous round, India overcame Bulgaria 2.5-1.5 in the eighth round of the open section at the Oval here on Monday.

However, the Indian women crashed to their second straight loss, a 1-2 reverse against Armenia.

It was the surprise defeat of K. Humpy in 50 moves with white on the top board that upset the Indian calculations after Swati Ghate pulled off a calculated victory on the third board in 51 moves.

Later, D. Harika also suffered her maiden defeat in the competition after an 83-move marathon.

Repeat

On the brighter side, the laboured victories of K. Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda, both playing white, helped India repeat its victory over the same Bulgarian quartet with a similar margin in the final round of the 2004 Olympiad in Calvia.

Even on that occasion, Veselin Topalov, who went on to become the World champion last year, was not part of the Bulgarian National team.

Chanda gained the upperhand within minutes of the start, as Vasil Spasov walked into his home preparation. But it took Chanda 97 moves to stamp his superiority with his rook proving powerful to his rival's knight.

Sasikiran, unlike Chanda, took his time to assert himself and squeezed out a much-much needed victory over Ivan Cheparinov, better known as Topalov's second, in 88 moves after the queens returned on the board. In the end, Sasikiran's two-pawn advantage made the difference.

Georgiev holds Anand

Earlier, Viswanathan Anand was forced to split the point by Kiril Georgiev and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, returning to action after a day's break, lost for the first time in seven outings here.

Playing white, Georgiev adopted the same defensive approach against Anand that had helped a few other lesser-rated players here hold the Indian star. The exchange of queens expedited the outcome of this 21-move miniature.

ith five rounds to go, Armenia, with 24 points, has a two-point lead over Ukraine and Russia.

In the women's section, Russia maintained its position at the top with 19 points.

The results (eighth round):

Open: Cuba (20.5) lost to Armenia (24) 1-3; Czech Republic (21) drew with Russia (22) 2-2; Uzbekistan (20.5) lost to Georgia (21.5) 1.5-2.5; Sweden (19.5) lost to Ukraine (22) 1-3; France (21.5) bt Netherlands (19.5) 3-1; Denmark (19.5) lost to USA (21.5) 1-3; Belarus (19.5) lost to Germany (21.5) 1.5-2.5; China (21.5) bt Philippines (18.5) 3.5-0.5; Bulgaria (19.5) lost to India (20.5) 1.5-2.5 (Kiril Georgiev drew with Viswanathan Anand; K. Sasikiran bt Ivan Cheparinov; Aleksander Delchev bt Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Sandipan Chanda bt Vasil Spasov); Slovenia (20) bt Greece ( 19.5) 2.5-1.5.

Women: Russia (19) drew with USA (17) 1.5-1.5; Hungary (16) lost to Ukraine (18.5) 1-2, Georgia (16.5) drew with Bulgaria (16) 1.5-1.5; Vietnam (16) bt Slovenia (15.5) 2-1; China (17) bt Latvia (14) 3-0; Romania (15) drew with France (15) 1.5-1.5; India (14.5) lost to Armenia (15.5) 1-2 (K. Humpy lost to Lilit Mkrchian; Elina Danielian bt D. Harika; Swati Ghate bt Siranush Andriasian); Germany (15.5) bt Slovakia (14.5) 2-1; Cuba (15) bt Estonia (14) 2-1; Netherlands (14) lost to Belarus (15) 1-2.

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