Russia Slips; India, Iran Move Ahead

Russia Slips; India, Iran Move Ahead
By Arvind Aaron

Top seed India and Iran moved ahead after eight rounds in the World Youth Chess Olympiad that is taking place at Gyor, Hungary on December 19, 2014.

Three Indians, including B Kumaran won against fourth seed Ukraine to help India win by a wide 3.5-0.5 margin. Iran blanked Serbia 4-0 with higher rated players on all four boards.

Jolted, Russia were held to a 2-2 draw by eleventh seed Turkey. Russia slid from joint lead to third place with 13 points. India and Iran are leading with 14 match points. Two rounds remain to be played. This event concludes on December 21, 2014.

Karthikeyan Murali who had just become a Grand Master, played a draw with the black pieces. Diptayan Ghosh, Aravindh Chitambaram and B Kumaran won. G.K. Monnisha was rested.

Aravindh is India’s best performer after eight rounds with 6/7. He is playing at a huge rating performance of 2672. India’s concerns are the bottom board and the contribution from this board is just 2/8. Extraordinary performances on other boards is covering this lapse. There will be mild pressure on coach Grand Master R.B. Ramesh until India retains the title.