The Indian men's team survived a scare before settling for a 2-2 draw with China in the fifth round of the 37th edition of the Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy.
Viswanathan Anand and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly survived a few anxious moments before settling for draws with Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua respectively.
On the second a third boards, Krishnan Sasikiran and Pendyala Harikrishna also signed peace with Zhang Zhong and Wang Yue respectively.
In the next round, the Indians are slated to play a strong German team.
On a day that witnessed the top five matches ending in draws, Russia and Armenia retained joint lead after a truce between them. Both teams took their tally to 15.5 points each and are followed by a rejuvenated Holland on 15 points.
Uzbekistan fourth on 14.5 points while a pack of seven teams, including the United States, are next in line with 14 points each.
The draw proved costly for the second-seeded Indian men, who were pushed to joint 11th spot. Eight rounds still remain in the biggest biennial chess spectacle.
India and China are likely to dominate the proceedings in the Asian Games, to be held at Doha this year, where chess is included as a medal sport for the first time. However, the prelude -- the fifth round of the Olympiad -- ended in China's favour as it was them who were pressing for victory against the higher-ranked Indians.
The drawn result was achieved because of some resolute play by the Indians after being pushed to the wall.
It turned out to be a tough outing for Anand despite playing white against Bu Zxiangzhi, who was once the youngest Grandmaster in the world.
Since the just-concluded Mtel Masters, Anand has not been effectively using his white pieces and the game against Xiangzhi was another attestation to this.
Playing his pet English attack, Anand could not quite stick to his plans while black unleashed an attack on his own king. In the middle game, Anand was forced to part with his queen for a rook and minor piece and it looked that the Chinese would prevail. But a cautious approach by the Indian ace forced a draw.
On the second board, Krishnan Sasikiran threw caution to the winds early against Zhang Zhong in another Sicilian Nazdorf of the day. Sacrificing an exchange early in the opening, Sasikiran followed up with another exchange sacrifice leading to wild complexities. But Zhong kept himself in the game making some precise moves. The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and it was a tricky endgame that Zhong managed to salvage.
Harikrishna could do little with his white pieces against the Slav defense of Wang Yue and signed peace in an equal position soon after the rook and minor piece endgame arrived.
Ganguly was subjected to some rigourous play before he achieved the same result against Ni Hua, whom the Indian had beaten in the last Aeroflot Open held in Moscow.
In the clash of titans, top seed Russia and second seed Armenia drew level after an intense fight on all board.
Playing on the top board for the third time here, Vladimir Kramnik showed why he is still hailed amongst the chess elite by beating world number three and World Cup winner Levon Aronian of Armenia on the top table.
Draws followed on the second and third boards and it was only after Gabriel Sargissian came up with some striking stuff on the fourth board against Alexander Morozevich that Armenians could heave a sigh of relief.
Important results round 5: Russia (15.5) drew with Armenia (15.5) 2-2; Uzbekistan (14.5) drew with Netherlands (15) 2-2; Spain (14) drew with Sweden (14) 2-2; Ukraine (14) drew with Bulgaria (14) 2-2; India (13.5) drew with China (13.5) 2-2; Georgia (13) lost to USA (14) 1.5-2.5; Poland (12.5) beat Italy A (11.5) 2.5-1.5; Greece (13.5) beat Argentina (12.5) 2.5-1.5; Romania (13) drew with Iceland (13) 2-2; Vietnam (12) lost to Iran (14) 1-3; Israel (13) drew with Denmark (13) 2-2; Czech Republic (13) drew with Croatia (13) 2-2; Brazil ( 13.5) beat Cuba (12.5) 2.5-1.5; Mexico (11.5) lost to Germany (13.5) 1-3; Switzerland (12.5) drew with Hungary (12.5) 2-2; Turkey (12) lost to Slovakia (13) 1.5-2.5; Colombia (10.5) lost to Belarus (14) 0.5-3.5; Serbia & Montenegro (13) beat Belgium (11) 3-1; Scotland (13) beat Egypt (11) 3-1; Moldova ( 11.5) lost to Azerbaijan (12.5) 1.5-2.5.
Indian board results: V Anand drew with Bu Xiangzhi; Zhang Zhong drew with Krishnan Sasikiran; P Harikrishna drew with Wang Yue; Ni Hua drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
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