Asian champion Tania Sachdev maintained her superb form to beat Ketino Kachiani-Gersinka, while Mary Ann Gomes accounted for Sarah Hoolt as the Indian women’s team beat Germany ’1′ 3-1 in the fourth round of the 32nd Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany.
However, the Indian men lost narrowly to top seeds Russia in the Open section after P Harikrishna’s heroic efforts, that netted him a victory over Peter Svidler, went in vain.
The 1.5-2.5 loss at the hands of the best team in the Olympiad saw the Indians slip to joint 10th on six points out of a possible eight while Russia maintained a clean slate.
The lead is now shared by Russia and Germany ’1′. Both have eight points each and there are seven teams following them with seven points each.
The Indian men meet Austria in the next round.
In the women’s section, China outclassed Armenia by a huge 3.5-0.5 margin to share the lead with Poland, who downed Serbia 2.5-1.5.
With two teams on eight points, the Indian women are now joint-third on seven points and share the place with Russia, Georgia and Hungary, whom they meet in the next outing.
It all summed up well for the Indian eves as Tania came up with another fine performance on the second board to beat Ketino, a former Georgian who now plays for Germany.
Playing black, Tania employed a set-up akin to the Benoni and was duly rewarded when Ketino went for insipid play in the ensuing middle game.
Declaring her intentions to fight for a bloody battle, Tania marched her king side pawns early to gain control and Ketino’s counter-play did not materilise. The game lasted 41 moves.
Mary Ann Gomes also came good with her black pieces against Sarah who employed a harmless variation against the Sicilian Najdorf. It took 47 moves for Mary to score the full point.
Among the Indian men, Harikrishna was an impressive winner against Svidler who played the black side of a Grunfeld defense. Opting for tactical complications in the middle game, Harikrishna romped home in just 27 moves.
Krishnan Sasikiran did well to hold Vladimir Kramnik on the top board but the form of the Indians was found wanting on the last two boards as Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda went down against Alexander Grischuk and Alexander Morozevich respectively.
The Olympiad is a 11-round Swiss event and for the first time match points are used as a criteria instead of normal game points. For winning each match a team is awarded two points while in case a 2-2 result one point is awarded to both the teams.
The Indian men have thus far lost one and won three matches while the eves have done better by drawing one and winning three matches.
