India Women Let Russia Escape With A Draw

By Arvind Aaron

Indian women had a dream chance of defeating top seed Russia in the third round of the Chess Olympiad at Dresden on Nov 15. But the chance was lost when Nisha Mohota lost to Kosintseva in a marathon 108-move encounter after being in a drawn position for long.

India and Russia drew 2-2 in a strange match which saw all four white players win. Each time we won, India went into lead but Russia came back. Just when we hoped that Nisha would break that trend of wins with white and make a draw with black, she fumbled. India and Russia are on five points. A win earns two points, draw one point and a defeat nothing.

In women, India took the lead when Tania Sachdev, our national women's champion from Delhi accepted the sacrificed material and won against Kosintseva with the white pieces on board two. World women's champion Kosteniuk won the prestigious top board game against the world junior girls champion Harika to level the score for Russia 1-1.

Swati Ghate of Pune had done well in the rook ending to win two pawns and defeat former world junior girls champion Ekaterina Korbut in the fourth board. Korbut had won the world Junior at Kochi in 2004. That left India in the saddle with an unbeatable 2-1 lead. Down 1-2, Russia had to win the last white board. The first three results to end saw players with the white side winning. But in a queen and bishop ending, it was Nisha Mohota having a slight advantage with the black pieces. As players made moves in the last few seconds, Nisha exchanged bishops and lost the queen ending by placing her king in the h-file. The result is a great one and a sad one. Great since we managed to draw the top seed. Sad since we missed defeating them. Last time at Turin 2006, we lost 1-2 to them.

Our men team are on a roll having won their third straight round. Indian men crushed El Salvador 3.5-0.5 with only Pentala Harikrishna making a draw with the black pieces in a level rook ending. Sasikiran took risk on top board to by avoiding a repetition and then giving two pieces for a rook to win his game. G.N. Gopal won his major pieces ending by training his rook and queen on the enemy king to win on board three. Chanda counterattacked and his opponent did not have a resource in defence against the making attack by black's queen and knight.
 

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Home                                                 Published on 17^th November,  2008