India Second After Dramatic Tie For First Place

India Second After Dramatic Tie For First Place
By Arvind Aaron

Final rounds in team competitions was usually tense and players are sometimes nervous too. Narrow margins saw China-1 defeating top seed and leaders Iran by 2.5-1.5 to open up any title interest. The final round of the World Youth Chess Olympiad in Mongolia on August 28 came to life.

Iran stayed on 16 points after the second defeat. This gave, India, Russia and Hungary chances to tie for the first place if they won. All of them won! There was a four-way tie for the first place and it was Iran, India (silver), Russia and Hungary finishing in that order.

Margins were narrow with only Aravindh winning and the other games were drawn. Vaishali, Sai Vishwesh and Ritviz drew for India’s silver medal.

Iran deserved to win as they blanked India 4-0 in a surprise margin earlier in the event. Iran were higher rated but that margin of defeat there hurt us in the long run. A 0.5-3.5 defeat would have meant our tie-break would have been better than Iran.

India lost one match, won seven and drew two for the second place.  Defending champions played well as fourth seed and to finish second and they had done well on that count.

Scorers: Vr Aravindh Chithambaram 7/9, R Vaishali 7/10, C Sai Vishwesh 6.5/10, Parab Ritviz 4.5/6, Al Muthaiah 4/5. In rating terms, the rating performance of all our players except Sai Vishwesh was better than expected.

Final placings (tie-break order): 1-4. Iran, India, Russia, Hungary 16/20; 5 China-1 14; 6-7. Uzbekistan, China-2 12 each; 8-15. Canada, Zavkhan, Mongolia, Turkey, MGL Team F, Kyrgyzstan, MGL Team A, France 11 each…35 teams.