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Armenia,
Georgia Win Olympiad
By Arvind Aaron
 Armenia
in men and Georgia in women scored final round wins to win the Hamilton
Russell and Vera Menchik Cup for the Chess Olympiad titles at Dresden on
Tuesday. Important for India, Mary Ann Gomes of Kolkata won the silver
medal for best performance (6/8) on the women's reserve board.
 India
scored victory number seven against Slovakia by 3-1 in men to finish 16th
place. India started as the 13th seed and this is moreorless a push
performance. India, trained by Lev Psakhis of Israel lost to three matches
and all were to higher rated teams, Russia, France and USA.
In the eleventh and final round, Sasikiran and Gopal drew on the top and
bottom boards while Harikrishna and Ganguly won in the middle. India team
was sponsored by India Cements and the total sponsorship was Rs.10 lakhs.
Indian scores: K. Sasikiran 6/10, P. Harikrishna 6/10, 3 S.S. Ganguly 6/9,
4 G.N. Gopal 5.5/9 and Sandipan Chanda 2.5/6. Ganguly is gaining about
12.1 Elo and Chanda is losing 11.2. Others played a shade above their
requirement.
Georgia regained the Chess Olympiad title after they lost it to the
Chinese in Elista 1998. They came close to winning in Bled 2002 and were
leading by a wide margin but fell apart in the last four rounds. Powered
by former world women's champion Maya Chiburdanidze, Georgia won the last
five games in a row this time to win the gold medal and the title on
better tie-break.
Defending champions Ukraine were pushed to silver medal. USA got bronze in
men and also in women and the only team to make the podium twice. Russia
started as favourite in men and women and did not make it to the top. They
need plenty of introspection for their performances in the last three
Olympiads.
Our women team also lost three matches like our men and also to higher
rated teams. They came close to defeating the top seed Russia but Nisha
lost a drawn position and we only drew 2-2. We had defeated Russia 2-1 in
Calvia but they were not the top seeds then.
India started as the eleventh seed and finished 15th with six wins, two
draws and three defeats. Our scores: Harika 5/10, Tania Sachdev 6.5/11,
Nisha Mohota 1/4, Swati Ghate 6.5/11, Mary Ann Gomes 6/8.
Medal winner Mary Ann Gomes is gaining 21.3 Elo and Swati 10.9 and
debutant Tania 4.7. Others are losing. Clearly with Humpy and
Vijayalakshmi in 2010 we would be a potent medal aspirant.
Final placings (match points, win two points, draw one point and defeat
gets nothing):
Men: 1 Armenia 19, 2 Israel 18, 3 USA 17, 4 Ukraine 17, 5 Russia 16, 6
Azerbaijan 16, 7 China 16, 8 Hungary 16, 9 Vietnam 16, 10 Spain 16, 11
Georgia 16, 12-17 Holland, Germany-A, Bulgaria, England, India, Slovenia
15 each...154 teams.
Women: 1 Georgia 18, 2 Ukraine 18, 3 USA 17, 4 Russia 17, 5 Poland 17, 6
Armenia 16, 7 Serbia 16, 8 China 15, 9 Israel 15, 10 Belarus 15, 11
Romania 15, 12 Italy 15, 13 France 14, 14 Hungary 14, 15 India 14, 16
Slovakia 14, 17 Mongolia 14, etc...114 teams.
Photos by Mr.Vijayakumar
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Home Published
on 25th November, 2008
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