Bad day for India at Chess Olympiad

India tasted bitter defeat in the eighth round of the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul on Monday, with both its men's and women's teams succumbing before their rivals.

The men's team lost to Uzbekistan 1.5-2.5 while the women went down to Poland 1-2.

In the men's section, Germany (23.5) maintained a full point lead over nearest rivals Russia by outplaying the Netherlands by a 3-1 margin. The Russians had a similar victory over Slovakia.

The score of the Indian men tallied a respectable 18.5 points despite the loss.

The Chinese appear unsurpassable in the women's event. They blanked a talented Vietnam team 3-0 and widened their lead to 1.5 points over Georgia.

The major casualty for India was GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who lost to Rustom Kasindzhanov. Playing black, Sasikiran employed the Slav defence, deserting the King's Indian that had served him well in prevous games.

After blitzing out the theoretical moves, Sasi got a balanced position but as is prevalent with the Slav, his king pawn came under pressure. The game entered the endgame where Sasi had to part with an exchange and the battle looked lost for him there on.

Kasimdzhanov opted for the simplest yet effective method to march his passed queen rook pawn to glory and scored an important victory for his team.

The dynamite from India, IM Pendalya Harikrishna levelled the score by putting it across GM Sergei Zagerbelny on the second board.

Playing white, the 14-year-old opened with the queen pawn and got a miniscule advantage from the opening.

As the game progressed, tension started to build in the Indian camp as Harikrishna embarked on a double-edged variation. The risk reaped high dividends as Zagerbelny struggled in the face of complicated variations and Harikrishna earned a well-deserved victory.

On the third board, GM Dibyendu Barua had no difficulty in holding GM Safin Shukrat to a draw from the black side of a semi Slav game.

Safin failed to get any advantage out of the opening and exchanged pieces at regular intervals. The draw was agreed to after 41 moves in an endgame where Safin had four pawns and a knight to Barua's two pawns and a rook.

IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly lost rather tamely to M Dzhumaev.

In a Modern defence game where Surya was white, Dzhumaev took advantage of lacklustre moves in the opening and initiated an attack on the queenside.

Surya tried opening the king side for counter-play but found Dzhumaev alert on that front too. In the end Dzhumaev won a piece to decide matters.

WGM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi's victory over M Socko was the only silver lining for the women's team.

Playing black, she opted for the fianchetto variation of the Slav defence and got a comfortable equality out of the opening. By deploying her forces on effective squares, Vijayalakshmi entered an endgame with better chances and squeezed her opponent on both flanks.