India Do Better In Round Two

By Arvind Aaron

In round one, our men and women won one game and drew the rest. In round two they won two games in men and women. Indian men and women teams did better in round two and are fully warmed up for this contest that will run until October 25 at Dresden. In men, we beat Sweden 3-1 and in women we did the same to Latvia 3-1. The difference between our men and women was that our men won with both black pieces and our women did the opposite, win with white.

In the third round, our men are facing El Salvador and our women take on top seed Russia. Both Russia and India are fielding the 1-2-3-4 for this match and it will be crucial for us. All four Indians are lower rated than the Russians and there should be no pressure on our players. Harika v Kosteniuk game would be interesting. Even if India makes 2-2 it will be a major achievement. Mary Ann is rested for this game. Our National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly is rested against El Salvador.

After two rounds, 18 teams are leading with full four points. This list includes four Asian teams, China, Malaysia, Japan and India. Malaysia (seed 73) and Japan (seed 107) are a surprise and they might fall a prey to
big teams by wide margins soon.

In round two, Indians were higher rated than the Swedes on all four boards and a win was expected. Sasikiran opened his account in his very first game beating Emanuel Borg with black. G.N. Gopal was about to check mate GM Hillarp Persson when the white player resigned. Ganguly and Chanda drew with the white pieces.

In the women's section, 14 teams are leading with full four points. It includes Asian teams India, China, top seeds Russia, Georgia, etc.

Harika drew with the black pieces in 15 moves after a repetition and could have easily played on against a lower rated opponent. Tania Sachdev could not have asked for better luck when her lower rated opponent dropped a full knight to lose a won ending. On the third board, Swati Ghate repeatedly checked her opponents king with her queen to get a 41-move draw. Mary Ann Gomes won with solid play to win her only game

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Home                                                 Published on 17^th November,  2008