The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Uzbekistan holds below par India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 01, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Uzbekistan holds below par India

Rakesh Rao

TURIN: Yet another below par performance put India in a precarious position in the medal race of the Chess Olympiad at the Oval here on Tuesday. The Indians drew with their Uzbek counterparts 2-2 in the ninth round in another spiritless performance. They now need to score very heavily in the remaining four rounds, totalling 16 games, in order to justify their second seeding.

India has 22.5 points and finds itself four points behind leader Armenia which defeated defending champion Ukraine 2.5-1.5 to reinforce its claim for the gold. In fact, India will do well to take a leaf out of China's book. China thrashed Georgia 4-0 to jump to the second spot with 25.5 points.

Anand rested

India, which rested an off-colour Viswanathan Anand on the top board, took on the 30th-seeded Uzbekistan with a hope of scoring at least a one-point victory. However, draws on all four games put paid to India's hopes.

Sasikiran and former World champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov were involved in a 20-move shadow boxing session before signing the peace treaty. Sandipan Chanda, on the fourth board, was also involved in a sedate draw in 39 moves, while the excitement was provided by the games involving P. Hari Krishna and Surya Shekhar Ganguly. In the women's section, India defeated Kazakhstan 2-1 with K. Humpy and D. Harika winning on the first two boards after Swati Ghate surrendered to a lower-rated rival. Despite the victory, the Indian girls have a long way to go for a repeat top-10 finish.

The results (ninth round):

Open: Ukraine (23.5) lost to Armenia (26.5) 1.5-2.5; Russia (23.5) lost to France (24) 1.5-2.5; Georgia (21.5) lost to China (25.5) 0-4: USA (23.5) drew with Czech Republic (23) 2-2; Germany (22.5) lost to Cuba (22) 1.5-2.5; India (22.5) drew with Uzbekistan (22.5) 2-2 (K. Sasikiran drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov; Aleksey Barsov drew with P. Hari Krishna; Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew with Timur Gareyev; Saidali Iuldachev drew with Sandipan Chanda); Slovenia (23) bt Slovakia (21) 3-1; Turkey (21.5) lost to Denmark (22) 1.5-2.5; Netherlands (21) lost to Croatia (22) 1.5-2.5; Moldova (22) bt Bulgaria (21) 2.5-1.5; Iran (21.5) drew with Norway (21.5) 2-2; Greece (22) bt Belarus (21) 2.5-1.5; Vietnam (21) drew with Sweden (21.5) 2-2.

Women: China (18.5) drew with Russia (20.5) 1.5-1.5; USA (17.5) lost to Ukraine (21) 0.5-2.5; Hungary (16.5) lost to Georgia (19) 0.5-2.5; Bulgaria (18.5) bt Vietnam (16.5) 2.5-0.5; Armenia (18) bt Germany (16) 2.5-0.5; Lithuania (17) bt Slovenia (16.5) 2-1; Romania (17.5) bt Cuba (15.5) 2.5-0.5; Poland (15.5) lost to France (17.5) 0.5-2.5; Belarus (15) lost to Israel (17.5) 0-3; Kazakhstan (15.5) lost to India (16.5) 1-2 (Dana Aketayeva lost to K. Humpy; D. Harika bt Sofya Zigangirova; Gulmira Dauletova bt Swati Ghate); Croatia (17) bt Slovakia (15) 2.5-0.5; Greece (17) bt Ecuador (14.5) 2.5-0.5.

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