India continue good showing
at Chess Olympiad

Continuing their good showing of the opening round, the Indian men's team carved out a facile 3.5-0.5 victory over Colombia in the second round in the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, though the women's team faced some difficulty while prevailing over Mongolia by a 2-1 margin.

The men's team, which had defeated Wales by a similar margin in the first round, are placed joint-third with seven points, half a point behind joint-leaders Cuba and Bulgaria, who defeated Bangladesh and Albania respectively by identical 3.5-0.5 margins on Sunday.

In the women's section, Russia took the sole lead with six points after crushing Croatia on all three boards, for their second 3-0 victory.

Eight teams follow the leaders on 5.5 points each while India are placed joint-14th with 4.5 points.

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran was the hero for India as he was the only one playing against a Grandmaster from Colombia on the top board.

Playing black against a highly-rated Alonso Zapata, Sasikiran gave an excellent display of his endgame prowess. The players earlier blitzed the opening moves of Ruy Lopez exchange variation and Sasikiran had little trouble in equalising in the ensuing middlegame.

Guiding his piece to seek squares in the rook and minor pieces endgame, Sasikiran won a couple of pawns and cruised to an emphatic victory.

If there was some nervousness about playing his first game ever in the Olympiad, double GM norm holder Surya Shekhar Ganguly did not show it and outclassed International Master Alzate Dario on the second board.

Ganguly, playing white, kept things under control right from the opening and capitalised on an erroneous sacrifice to score easily.

Back in the Indian team after Dibyendu Barua opted out owing to 'health reasons', GM Pravin Thipsay got the better of Uribe Mauricio with white pieces on the fourth board.

The middlegame, arising out of a French Advance, was fought hard by both the players but Thipsay retained his advantage with consistent threats against the black king. A tactical trick netted the Indian an exchange after which it was child's play for him. This was Thipsay's second consecutive victory.

The half point was dropped on the third board where IM R B Ramesh was held to a draw by Miguel Mosquera. Playing black, Ramesh stuck to his newfound love in the Sicilian Sveshnikov and got the dynamic equilibrium that favoured him in the final stages of the game.

However, Mosquera fought well to get the draw that turned out to be the only saving grace for his team.

Amongst the Indian women, Woman Grandmaster Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi also recorded her second straight win.

Playing black on the first board against Bayanmonh Anhchimeg of Mongolia, Vijayalakshmi faced the Ruy Lopez and exchanges at regular intervals did not prevent her from gaining a substantial advantage in the endgame. The victory came after the Indian pocketed a few pawns.

Mongolia's best player Bathuyag Mongontuul was fielded on the second board and Aarthie Ramaswamy played it safe though she managed a miniscule advantage out of the Sicilian Paulsen with white pieces. The draw was agreed to in 30 moves.

On the third board, Swati Ghate was lucky to salvage a draw in a lost endgame against Tuvshintogs Batchimeg, who played white. Swati missed some threads in the early part of the game and found herself struggling against a passed pawn in the centre.

However, the Mongolian returned the favour with a blunder that ended the game in a peace result through perpetual checks.

In other important games of the day, the world's highest rated player Garry Kasparov of Russia put it across Aleksij Aleksandrov of Belarus comprehensively on the first table.

For Russia, Alexander Grishchuk dropped half a point on board two as Alexei Federov put up stiff resistance but Alexander Khalifman and Peter Svidler did the needful for their team by scoring swiftly over Andrei Kovalev and Viacheslav Dydyshko respectively.

Earlier report:
Day 1: Indians off to a winning start at Chess Olympiad