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India reaches the semifinals
By Mr.Sameer Salgoacar
The Indian pair of Grandmaster K. Sasikiran and International Master Tania
Sachdev played excellently to take India into the Semifinals of the First
Mind Sports Games being organised in Beijing. In the semifinal tomorrow,
India take on Ukraine whereas Iran will play against Ecuador in the second
semifinal.
Interestingly, India was seeded third at the start of the event. Both the
top seeds of China (comprising of Grandmasters Ni Hua and Yifan Hou) as
well as the second seed Germany (comprising of Grandmaster Arkadij
Naiditsch and International master Elisabeth Paetz) failed to make it to
the next round. India started slowly, losing to unfancied United States
2-0 and then were held to a draw by lesser ranked Iran 1-1. Then there
followed draws against Ukraine and Ecuador in the sixth and seventh round
respectively. The turning point came in the eighth round when facing a 'do
or die situation' India beat the sixth seeded Hungary courtesy a fine
victory by Tania against Grandmaster Hoang Thanh Trang after Sasikrian had
been held to a draw by Grandmaster Csaba Balogh.
After that Sasikiran was in his elements winning all the next three
matches that he played. The match against Grandmaster Ni Hua was in
particular a wonderful game by the Indian star considering that they were
playing the topseed and that too in their backyard.
Ni Hua had no alternative then to resign when Sasikiran was threatening
mate with his rook and dark squared bishop after a complex middlegame. In
the final match, India needed a 2-0 victory against the eighth seeded
Netherlands and after Sasikiran beat Grandmaster Dimitri Reinderman Tania
checkmated Grandmaster Zhaouquin Peng with a fine combination involving
the Queen and Knight. India finished fourth and edged out Singapore on a
higher Bucholz score although they were tied on both matchpoints as well
as gamepoints.
The final standings -
1. Ukraine 15 matchpoints.
2. Iran 14 matchpoints (14.5 gamepoints).
3. Ecuador 14 matchpoints (14 gamepoints).
4. India 14 matchpoints (13 gamepoints, Bucholz score 135).
5. Singapore 14 matchpoints (13 gamepoints, Bucholz score 128).
6-10. Vietnam, Greece, Poland, Germany, Netherlands 13 gamepoints.
India reaches the semifinals
By Prof. Ananthram
India, represented by Sasikiran and Tania Sachdev, had a dramatic recovery
to squeeze into the semi final stage of the Blitz pair event in the 1st
World Mind Sports, being held in Beijing. At the end of the tenth and
penultimate round, it was ranked 10th, with 12 match points, having a very
slim chance to finish among the top four. Ukraine was leading with 14
points, followed by Iran, Singapore, Netherlands, with 13 points each.
Among the six teams with 12 points, India was placed last, as it had the
lowest number of game points. India needed to win the final round game
against Netherlands by 2-0, China had to lose to Ecuador, Poland had to
force a draw against Singapore and Vietnam had to split points with
Greece. If none of them did not click, India would have been out of the
race.
Sasikiran and Tania played with grit and determination to outwit
Reinderman Dimitry and Peng Zhaoqin respectively and all other results
occurred surprisingly or miraculously, because of which India and
Singapore were tied for the fourth and fifth places with 13 game points
each. India pipped Singapore in the second tie break – Buchholz score to
get into the top four group. Ukrainne collected 15 match points to lead
the table in the preliminaries, followed by Iran, Ecuador and India with
14 match points in that order.
Tomorrow India meets Ukraine in the first semi final and Iran faces
Ecuador in the other. In both individual Blitz and Rapid matches, India
bowed out in the preliminary stages.
If in cricket, dropped catches cost the match, in Blitz chess here,
dropped pieces lose the match. Special rules have been framed for this
competition and if a player displaces the piece or pieces and does not
adjust them before pressing his clock, he loses the game. More
interestingly, if the opponent does not claim, and the arbiter observes
the displacement later, he can declare the game lost by both players.
India had the dubious distinction of losing two games in such a manner,
once by Sasikiran and the other by Tania.
More world mind games 1 2
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Published on 09th October, 2008
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