Indian men falter against Russia

The Indian men's team met with an expected fate against defending champions Russia, going down 1-3, while the women fought hard to hold France to a 1.5-1.5 draw in the third round matches of the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia.

After two rounds of facile victories, the Indian men ran into the world's strongest team and could salvage just one point through drawn encounters of P Harikrishna and Abhijit Kunte.

The emphatic victory catapulted the Russians to the joint lead alongwith Cuba, Georgia and Poland at 10 points, and kept them on course for their sixth title in a row. India have eight points.

The women's field is being led by China, United States and Yugoslavia with 7.5 points each while the Indians have six points.

In the men's section, Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran took on the world's best player Garry Kasparov on the top board and was outplayed by the Russian despite having the advantage of white pieces.

Sasikiran was up against a Slav Chelyabinsk that is steadily becoming Kasparov's favourtie opening against the Queen pawn players. Not satisfied with the level positions especially since he was playing white, Sasikiran went for a highly complicated variation that has not been serving him well off late.

Kasparov got the dynamic balance he was looking for right in the middle game and initiated an attack against a backward queen pawn of Sasikiran. The Indian fought bravely but missed out a forced tactical sequence of moves that cost him a pawn.

Kasparov was merciless thereafter as he thwarted all counter-play attempts of Sasikiran in copybook fashion. The game lasted 38 moves.

On the second board, Harikrishna held Alexander Morozevich to a draw with the black pieces. Having beaten Morozevich just a fortnight back during the World Chess Cup at Hyderabad, the 16-year-old Indian appeared a picture of confidence as he tackled the complexities of a Sicilian Rossolimo attack.

Morozevich's plans of confusing Harikrishna did not prove successful and the game hung in balance right till the end.

Pieces were exchanged at regular intervals after Morozevich went for a breakthrough on the queenside with a temporary pawn sacrifice.

Harikrishna was up to the task when it came to the ensuing Rook and pawns endgame where he was pushed to the limit. However as the dust subsided after 46 moves, both players realised that it was futile to carry on and agreed to a draw.

"It was a very complex game right till the end", said Harikrishna after the game.

On the third board, Surya Shekhar Ganguly went down fighting against Peter Svidler.

Despite playing with white pieces, Ganguly had to sweat it out in the established theoretical manoeuvres of a Sicilian Richer Rauzer attack wherein Svidler appeared well armed.

The middle game was fiercely fought as Ganguly launched an attack on the kingside and faced a similar assault on the other flank. The Russian was the first to strike after Ganguly made an erroneous capture and found himself reeling under potentially dangerous threats.

Once he had gained the upper hand, Svidler made no mistakes and finished off the issue in 39 moves.

The other half point by the Indians was achieved on the fourth board as GM Abhijit Kunte held Sergei Rublevski to a creditable draw from a difficult situation with black pieces.

The Russian opened with Scotch game and gained a miniscule advantage out of the opening. In the resulting middl egame, Kunte had to part with a pawn to restrict the pressure and after some routine exchanges the endgame witnessed Kunte struggling.

Resourceful that he is, Kunte manoeuvred his Knight near to the centre of the board and achieved sufficient counter play.

The game petered out to a draw after 64 moves with Kunte heaving a sigh of relief. "I knew once my knight went to the centre I was back in the game, the position is level after that", said Kunte.

In the women's encounter, IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy won her game on the third board against Nepeina-Leconte Maria to equalise for India after Meenakshi had lost her encounter to IWM Sebaq Marie. Subbaraman Vijaylakshmi had earlier played a draw against Almira Akripchenko-Lautier.

Earlier reports:
Round 2: India continue good showing at Chess Olympiad
Round 1: Indians off to a winning start at Chess Olympiad