Chess Olympiad Round 9: Ukraine narrowly edge India; Women’s team trounce Netherlands
The Indian men’s team in the Open section went down to the table-toppers Ukraine, in the Round 9. The Indians looked positive entering the crucial round after they had defeated England in their previous round, but lost the match 2.5-1.5 to the Ukrainians.
The Indian men’s team in the Open section succumbed to their second loss in three games, as they lost to Ukraine, in their Round 9 clash. The Indians looked positive entering the crucial round after they had defeated England in their previous round, but lost the match 2.5-1.5 to the Ukrainians.
It was Grand Master(GM) SP Sethuraman’s game which yet again turned out to be the decisive match of the round, but this time coming for a losing cause. The Indian, with white pieces played GM Anton Korobov on the fourth board. The match saw the popular Sicilian defense played by black. Korobov converted a small advantage in the middle game in his favour, and eventually won the match in 61 moves.
On the top board, GM P. Harikrishna took on GM Pavel Eljanov, in a game which saw the King’s Indian variation of the Reti opening. Both players defended well and eventually the game was drawn by repetition. Meanwhile, GM Baskaran Adhiban and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played out easy draws in their respective encounters.With this loss, the Indian team slipped to joint third in the standings, with just two more rounds to go. The penultimate round on Monday, could well decide if India will be among the medals or not.
In the women’s section, India put up yet another strong showing, after defeating the Netherlands with a score of 3-1. GM Harika led the team from the front after her comfortable win with white pieces over Zhaoqin Peng on board one. Only IM Padmini Rout lost her match in the ninth round. IM Tania Sachdev and WGM Soumya Swaminathan too scored easy wins against their opponents.
The latter, who is having a dream Olympiad so far, even checkmated her opponent with black pieces.Just like in the Open’s section, the Indian women too are joint third in the standings, alongside Ukraine, Russia and the United States. With all to play for in the final two rounds of the Olympiad, the talented girls, who are medal-hopefuls, will have their task cut out.
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