NDTV.com, India –
June 4 2006

Chess: Anand crashes in penultimate round

Sunday, June 4, 2006 (Turin):

World number two Viswanathan Anand crashed to a shocking defeat as
Indian men suffered another humiliation going down to a low ranked
Canada by a 1.5-2.5 margin in the 12th and penultimate round at the
Chess Olympiad.

Anand lost early against Pascal Charbonneau on the top board and that
set the tone for another disaster as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was also
stunned by unheralded International Master Thomas Roussel-Roozmon
later in the day.

Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna saved some blushes for the
Indians with a victory on the third board against Krnan Tomas while
Krishnan Sasikiran could only manage a draw against GM Mark
Bluvshtein on the second.

The second seeded Indian team struggled from the first round despite
starting as the second favourites in the 37th edition of the
Olympiad.

Meanwhile, at the top of the tables, Armenia took a huge 2.5 points
lead over nearest rivals China with a clinical 2-2 draw with France
without much ado.

Armenian players settled for peace pretty quickly while the Chinese
men had to work hard for a 3-1 victory over Czech republic and now
they are firmly in second place on 31.5 points, a half point adrift
of nearest rival Russia.

Russian also did well to beat Cuba by a 3-1 margin and even as
Armenia is now almost confirmed for the gold medal the fight for the
silver is still on between Russia and China. (PTI)