Thumping wins for Indian
men and women

The Indian men and women's teams scored thumping victories over The Philippines and Equador respectively in what was a great seventh round for them in the Chess Olympiad at the Bled Sports Hall in Slovenia.

The men's team, led by Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran and International Master S S Ganguly beat the Philippines 3-1, while the women's team whitewashed Equador 3-0.

In the men's section, Russia stayed in the lead with 21.5 points after defeating Poland 3-1. Garry Kasparov and Alexander Khalifman scored full points for Russia with the white pieces.

Hungary, Romania and The Netherlands are joint-second with 19 points each.

Georgia continued to lead with 16.5 points in the women's section after drawing with Russia, while China blanked France 3-0 to move to the second position with 16 points.

Earlier, the Indian women crushed their lower-rated opponents, with Aarthie Ramaswamy delivering the first blow with a miniature 19-move win over Vasquez Ramirez with white pieces.

Facing the Sicilian defence, Aarthie played in copybook style centralising her forces and castling on the Queen's wing.

Anticipating a fearsome attack on her uncastled King, Black went in for an early resignation. Perhaps an example of Aron Nimzowitch's saying, 'The threat is stronger than its execution.'

Indian captain S Vijayalakshmi, who rested yesterday, played with renewed vigour to outplay Martha Fierro from the Black side of the Sicilian Grand Prix attack. Vijayalakshmi stopped white's Kingside play while simultaneously training her pieces on the exposed White King.

With checkmate looming in the corner in view of Black Queen-Bishop battery, White resigned on the 30th move.

Swati Ghate, playing on the third board behind the black pieces, played her favourite Sicilian Paulsen defence to emerge victor in 38 moves. It was a step by step victory with Swati displacing the White King early in the game and following it up by winning a pawn after the exchange of Queens. In desperation White tried sacrificing a piece in order to Queen a pawn but Swati coolly swallowed the pieces and prevented the 'd' pawn's home run to register her win.

Earlier reports:
Round 6: Indian men win, women draw
Round 5: Bad day for India
Round 4: Indian teams back to winning ways
Round 3: Indian men falter against Russia
Round 2: India continue good showing at Chess Olympiad
Round 1: Indians off to a winning start at Chess Olympiad