Anand draws with Georgiev

Indians had a mixed outing in the eighth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad.

The men scored a 2.5-1.5 victory over Bulgaria, while the women suffered defeat from Armenia.

Viswanathan Anand played out his fifth draw on the trot, settling for peace with former world junior champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria.

Playing white, Georgiev adopted the same defensive approach against Anand that had helped a few other lesser-rated players here hold the Indian star. The exchange of queens expedited the outcome of this 21-move miniature.

With five rounds to go, Armenia, with 24 points, has a two-point lead over Ukraine and Russia.

National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly , against Alexander Delchev, returning to action after a day's break, lost for the first time in seven outings here.

On the brighter side, the laboured victories of K. Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda, both playing white, helped India repeat its victory over the same Bulgarian quartet with a similar margin in the final round of the 2004 Olympiad in Calvia.

Even on that occasion, Veselin Topalov, who went on to become the World champion last year, was not part of the Bulgarian National team.

Chanda gained the upperhand within minutes of the start, as Vasil Spasov walked into his home preparation. But it took Chanda 97 moves to stamp his superiority with his rook proving powerful to his rival's knight.

Sasikiran, unlike Chanda, took his time to assert himself and squeezed out a much-much needed victory over Ivan Cheparinov, better known as Topalov's second, in 88 moves after the queens returned on the board. In the end, Sasikiran's two-pawn advantage made the difference.

Fumbling down

Indian mainstay Koneru Humpy fumbled against Lilit Mkrtchian and suffered her first defeat in the event as the Indian women lost to Armenia by a 1-2 margin. D Harika also went down while the lone saving grace was Swati Ghate who won an engrossing battle on the third board to thwart a whitewash.


At the top of the tables, the Armenian men yet again proved that they are the frontrunners this time with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over Cuba. The Russian men could only manage a 2-2 draw with Czech Republic which meant that Armenia took a two point lead over their nearest rivals.

In the women's section, Russia drew with Czech Republic raising Ukraine's title hopes. The result narrowed Czechs' lead to half a point. The Ukrainians cruised to an easy 2-1 victory over Hungary.

Category: Chess , The Chess Olympiad