India beats Azerbaijan, shares joint second spot

By CharudattaJadhav, President

Reporting from Ohrid, Macedonia

The Indian lads kept the hopes alive by beating Azerbaijan convincingly with 3-1 in the 5th round of the 15th IBCA chess olympiad for the blind here at Macedonia. On the first board, Soundarya Kumar Pradhan jettisoned his chances and squandered a win in an english opening game. Soundarya offered a pawn early in the game to get an active position but lost his way and went down. On the second table, National champion Kishan Gangolli systematically outplayed his opponent in a Larsen opening game.

Kishan’s rook proved to be much stronger than his oponent’s bishop and two pawns. On thew third board, AshvinMakwana posted a fluent win with his knight on e5 and king side pawn storm in his pet London system.  ON the 4th board, young Aryan Joshi easily accounted for his opponent’s french advance variation, and won the game with a king hunt.

On the top board, Poland(10 points) beat Ukraine(8 points). Russia(8 points) blanked Venezuela(6 points) 4-0.
Tomorrow is a rest day. In the 6th round, Poland meets Russia, while India takes on Ukraine.