Indian men start campaign with a win

The Indian men were off to an average start with a 2.5-1.5 victory over unfancied Uruguay in the opening round of the 36th Chess Olympiad here at Gran Casino.

Playing without the services of World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand and national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly, both of whom were rested in the opening round, the all-Grandmaster Indian team saw only Sandipan Chanda winning his board with white pieces.

Krishnan Sasikiran and Abhijit Kunte were held to draws with black pieces, while P Harikrishna had to split points with the favourable colour.

Sasikiran signed peace in just 23 moves against GM Andres Rodriguez while Kunte got into some opening problems against Curi Gabriel and decided against going for risky ventures in his 21-move draw. Harikrishna was held to a draw by Bernardo Mailhe Roselli in a marathon 68-move game.

Sandipan Chanda defeated Alejandro Bauza in a finely crafted game to gain full points.

Some of the other boards also witnessed a few customary first round upset results, typical of team competitions.

Former World Champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia was denied much pleasure by unheralded FM Marc Simonet of Andorra with the latter drawing in an apprantly superior position.

On the other boards for top seed Russia, Alexander Grischuk, Alexey Dreev and Vadim Zvjaginsev scored victories to complete a 3.5-0.5 victory. Second seed Ukraine and third seed Israel however had little trouble and blanked Indonesia and South Africa 4-0 respectively. The event is being played under FIDE's Swiss rules of team competition and 14 rounds are to be played among 128 teams.

In all there will be 56 games to be split between six players in each team and the team securing maximum points from these games will be declared the winner.

Russia are the defending champions and have won this event on previous six occasions.

The Indians had Sandipan to thank for much.

He was a class act in his 46-move triumph over Gabriel who opted for the French defence. Playing his pet Advance variation, Sandipan maintained a stronghold on the position right from the beginning and never gave any real chance of counterplay to his opponent.

It was in the late middle game that the Indian struck with a piece sacrifice and thereafter there was no stopping white's pawns from doing the damage.

Sasikiran had a seemingly preferable position out of the Italian game as black but consistent play by Rodriguez ensured that the position liquidated to a level endgame. At the time of draw agreement it was eminent that white had no problems.

Playing the black side of his pet Sicilian, Kunte got into some difficulties against Gabriel's active play on the king side. He did not succeed in getting the desired counter play on the other flank and his draw proposal did not come as a surprise.

Harikrishna tried hard to make a foray in to Roselli's defences but the latter put up a sterling show to hold the Indian.