Story ProgressBack to home
India lose to Russia at Mallorca
India suffered a 1.5-2.5 defeat against top seeds and defending champions Russia in the ninth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad here at the Gran Casino.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:09 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Mallorca:
India suffered a 1.5-2.5 defeat against top seeds and defending champions Russia in the ninth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad here at the Gran Casino. Viswanathan Anand gave India an early lead but his effort went in vain. Leading from the front, Anand crashed through the defences of Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich. Krishnan Sasikiran also did well on the second board in getting an easy draw as black against Russian champion Peter Svidler. Leading the downfall But the remaining two boards saw the Indian downfall as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was outdone from a complicated position by Vadim Zvjaginsev. Harikrishna missed out on a simple winning manoeuvre against Alexey Dreev before he was eventually tamed. In hindsight, it could have been 3-1 in India's favour but in the end the six-time winners proved superior. Top of the table Leaders Ukraine, who settled for a 2-2 draw with fourth seeds Armenians on the top table, maintained a 2.5 advantage over Russia (24.5). With just five more rounds remaining, USA was the biggest gainer of the day as they moved to sole third spot on 24 points after drubbing Spain 'A' 3.5-0.5. Armenia and third seed Israel were in joint fourth spot on 23 points while the Indians shared the sixth spot on 22.5 along with Switzerland, Bulgaria, France, Slovenia, Azerbaijan and Cuba. Poland and Moldova were next in line on 22 points each. More For Ukraine, Andrei Volokitin delivered the goods against Smbat Lputian on the third board while veteran Rafael Vaganian put it across former World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov to level scores for Armenia. As the other two boards were drawn, Ukraine maintained their no-loss record and took their tally to 27 points out of a possible 36. Victory in vain Anand was brilliance personified as he outplayed Morozevich in an extremely complicated game arising out of a Sicilian defence and leading to a Hedgehog setup. "I think I was winning after the opening itself, it looks to me like he was two tempis (moves) down but then the nature of the position is such that black can make some complications and Morozevich succeeded in doing that," said Anand about the opening after the match. In the middle game, for quite sometime, Morozevich's trademark complications were quite visible as he had Anand looking out for best manoeuvres to maintain the upper hand. The Russian finally faltered when he fell way behind on the clock and sacrificed an exchange, missing Anand's bait that left him tottering on move 37. Anand finally netted the full point in 45 moves. Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran also came out with flying colours on board two for India as he held Svidler to a creditable draw with black pieces. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
Chess
Get the Latest IPL 2024 Updates, check out IPL 2024 schedules and IPL points table at NDTV Sports.Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for more sports updates. You can also download the NDTV Cricket app for Android or iOS.