Indian men's team stayed as the only one to have an all-win record after six rounds, as they recorded their sixth straight win, this time 3-1 over the Netherlands to move into the joint third position overall. At the end of the first six rounds is the first rest day and India are well placed at joint third spot with Bulgaria on 17 points.
Indian men can go for one of the medals, as they will now play most of the top teams, unless there is a severe reverse. Their next round is against top seeds Ukraine, and NIIT sponsored Viswanathan Anand will in all likelihood clash with Vassily Ivanchuk and if Anand can maintain his plus score against the player, India will be off to a great start.
Ukraine leads the men's table at 19 points and are closely followed by top seed and defending champions Russia, who scored a fine 3.5-0.5 win over third seeds Israel, as they seemed buoyed by the arrival of Peter Svidler, who missed the first five rounds. Svidler was helping Vladimir Kramnik as his second in a match where Kramnik beat Peter Leko to win the Brissago Danneman World Championships.
World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand, the Indian captain coming for an Olympiad after a gap of 12 years, scored a fine win over his old foe, Loek Van Wely, against whom he has a great plus score.
That set the tone of the match, and later Surya Sekhar Ganguly added to the celebration beating Erik Van Den Doel.
Krishnan Sasikiran drew with the experienced Sergei Tiviakov, a Bulgarian who has taken Dutch citizenship, and Abhijit Kunte did well to hold Friso Nijboer.
India are seeded fifth and Holland were seeded eighth, but the latter has a very experienced side.
Ukraine defeated Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5 to take their tally to 19 points.
Israel, Spain 'A', Armenia and Azerbaijan are in joint fifth place on 16.5 five while Slovakia, Georgia, France, Poland and Cuba are clubbed together, tallying an identical 15.5 points apiece.
India is the only team with six straight wins, as Ukraine drew earlier with Israel 2-2, and Russia had lost to Ukraine in fourth round.
In the women's section, sixth seeds India managed to hold 13th seed Hungary to a 1.5-1.5 draw despite Grandmaster Koneru Humpy suffering a shocking defeat.
Top seeds and defending champions China beat second seed Russia 2-1 to keep their three points lead over France that holds the sole second spot at this stage on 13 points. The Indians with 1.5 points against Hungary share the third spot with Russia, Ukraine, United States, Bulgaria and Armenia, all of whom are on 12 points.
India will next meet third seeds, United States, who also have 12 points.
Humpy played in the Modern defense against Szidonia Vajda who seemed a little tense at the start of the game. Humpy, while going for an all out attack against the king sacrificed a pawn on the Queen side and that led to her downfall. Vajda made good that advantage and won.
As Humpy went down, S Vijayalakshmi rose to the occasion and beat Anita Gara to level matters. Then Nisha Mohota (2286) played a draw with much higher rated Nikoletta Lakos (2359) to make it 1.5-1.5.
© 2024 Rediff.com -