INDIAN MEN PREVAIL OVER BULGARIA, WOMEN LOSE TO ARMENIA

PTI
Daily News & Analysis, India
May 30 2006

TURIN: The Indians had a mixed outing in the eighth round of the
37th Chess Olympiad here with the men scoring a 2.5-1.5 victory over
Bulgaria and the women suffering defeat at the hands of Armenia.

While 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 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.

Meanwhile, in the women’s section, Indian mainstay Koneru Humpy fumbled
against Lilit Mkrtchian and suffered her first defeat in the event as
the Indian women lost to Armenia 1-2. 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.