Indian teams secure third victory in Chess Olympiad

Khanty Mansiysk (Russia): Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran displayed his top form to help India beat Colombia with a minimal 2.5-1.5 margin in the third round of the 29th Chess Olympiad here. Sasikiran defeated Alexander Curartas Medina Jaime from the white side of an exciting game while the other bigwigs of the Indian team P Harikrishna and Surya Shekhar Ganguly were held to draws by much lower rated opponents. On the fourth board, B Adhiban was held to a draw but that was enough for an Indian victory. The Indian eves also continued with their victory march and defeated Moldova 3-1 in a keenly contested match. D Harika and Nisha Mohota were held to draws but in form Eesha Karavade and S Meenakshi scored wins in contrasting fashion to ensure country`s third win from as many matches. It was almost the last round when the favourites clashed with lesser teams and from the next round onwards things are only going to heat up. The Indian men will meet their first major challenge against Russia two in the next round while the eves will take on Bulgaria. The upset galore however continued although there were no major debacles. Croatia that had dumped Bulgaria in the previous round continued with their excellent run and ended up in a tied contest with Ukraine, one of the favourites for the gold. Minus Vassily Ivanchuk, the Ukrainians lacked sting and a victory by Zahar Efimenkov was not enough when Croatian Palac stunned Alexander Moiseenko on the fourth board. The other two games were drawn. In other notable results, Poland played out a draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina while Georgia scored a nerve-wrecking 2.5-1.5 victory over Mexico despite their star performer Baadur Jobava`s loss against Manuel Leon Hoyos. In the women`s section, Russia played out draws on all boards against Germany. Rating favourites Russia however cruised to an emphatic 3.5-0.5 victory over Slovakia. The form of Harikrishna might be a worrying factor for team India as the stalwart continued to struggle in his second outing in the Olympiad too. Alder Escobar Forero turned out to be a tough nut to crack as Harikrishna found from a Caro Kann defense game. The middle game was evenly poised and timely exchanges gave Forero an easy draw in the endgame. Sasikiran, on the other hand, was precise in his calculation in a wild game arising out of a Queen pawn game and his perseverance paid off in form of a tactical shot that resulted in a winning endgame. Ganguly could not do much with his white pieces while Adhiban was saddled with a passive position before his game was drawn. Bureau Report