Indian Teams Bounce Back Strongly

Indian Teams Bounce Back Strongly
By Arvind Aaron

Having lost the previous round, India recovered strongly to defeat Austria 4-0 in women and score 3.5-0.5 against Montenegro in Open section of the fifth round at Tromso, Norway.

Two Asian teams, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are among the seven leaders with nine match points in the Open Chess Olympiad. India shares the 25th place with seven match points out of possible ten.

Kazakhstan shocked higher rated Turkey 3-1 and Uzbekistan hogged the limelight for defeating second seed Ukraine 2.5-1.5. Kazimdzhanov upset Ivanchuk on the top board.

India thrashed Montenegro 3.5-0.5 with Adhiban playing the draw on the bottom board. Negi, Sethuraman and Sasikiran won the top three boards. Sethuraman is on 4/5 having played all his games so far.

In the women’s section, top two seeds, China, Russia and seed 13 Hungary are leading with maximum ten match points. India are tied for the 19th place with seven match points.

For India, Tania Sachdev was rested and the other four extracted maximum points from Austria. Harika and Padmini Rout have started well with 3.5/4.

Defending champions Russia won a close 2.5-1.5 battle against former champions Georgia. China was too strong for Indonesia winning 3.5-0.5 and Iran went down fighting 1.5-2.5 to former champions Hungary. Vietnam’s Hoang Thanh Trang representing Hungary scored over Atousha Pourkashiyan in the top board decider.