NDTV, India
May 30 2006
Chess: Anand draws with Georgiev
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 (Turin):
Indians had a mixed outing in the eighth round of the 37th Chess
Olympiad.
The men scored a 2.5-1.5 victory over Bulgaria, while the women
suffered defeat from Armenia.
Viswanathan Anand played out his fifth draw on the trot, settling for
peace with former world junior champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria.
National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered went down against
Alexander Delchev.
It was only thanks to a late onslaught by Krishnan Sasikiran and
Sandipan Chanda against Ivan Cheparinov and Vasily Spassov
(respectively) that the Indian men were able to get past unscathed.
Fumbling down
Indian mainstay Koneru Humpy fumbled against Lilit Mkrtchian and
suffered her first defeat in the event as the Indian women lost to
Armenia by a 1-2 margin.
D Harika also went down while the lone saving grace was Swati Ghate
who won an engrossing battle on the third board to thwart a
whitewash.
At the top of the tables, the Armenian men yet again proved that they
are the frontrunners this time with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over
Cuba.
The Russian men could only manage a 2-2 draw with Czech Republic
which meant that Armenia took a two point lead over their nearest
rivals.
In the women’s section, Russia drew with Czech Republic raising
Ukraine’s title hopes. The result narrowed Czechs’ lead to half a
point. The Ukrainians cruised to an easy 2-1 victory over Hungary.
(PTI)