India Shock Israel
By Arvind Aaron

India shocked Israel and continued to make waves at the World Team Chess Championship being played at Bursa in Turkey on Jan 12.

Ganguly's endgame skills saw him better Evgeny Postny in the third board in quick time. Other Indians drew their matches to wrap the match 2.5-1.5.

Sasikiran was impressive against Gelfand with the white pieces even turning down repetition from the World Cup champion. Harikrishna lost a pawn and suffered the most but held Michael Roiz to a draw.

Arun Prasad had lost a pawn and the ending was a rook and same colour bishop ending. Maxim Rosshtein misplayed and  got into a near lost situation as Arun Prasad was a pawn up towards the end.

India and Azerbaijan share the third and fourth places with 11 points. Russia took over the lead with 13 points after USA suffered a defeat at the hands of Armenia. USA is in second place on 12 points. USA faces Azerbaijan in the final round. Assuming that Russia might win the title, India are sure of a medal if we manage to defeat Brazil in the final round.

Plenty of interest is likely to happen in this event as India did well right from the start and never lost easily and always were fighting.

The results (round eight): Armenia (10) bt USA (12) 2.5-1.5, Azerbaijan (11) bt Greece (6) 3-1, Turkey (3) lost to Brazil (4) 1.5-2.5, India (11) bt Israel (7)(K. Sasikiran drew with B. Gelfand, P. Harikrishna drew with Michael Roiz, S.S. Ganguly bt Evgeny Postny, Arun Prasad drew with Maxim Rodshtein) 2.5-1.5, Russia (13) bt Egypt (3) 3.5 -0.5.
 

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