Indian Men Manage to Win Against Hungary

India just about managed to get past Hungary in Round 4 of the 37th Chess Olympiad.National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly guided the Indian men to a narrow 2.51.5 victory over Hungary in the fourth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad on Thursday.

It turned out to be a difficult day for the second seed Indians after Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi on the first board but Gangulys expertise came in handy against Robert Ruck. Both Krishnan Sasikiran and P Harikrishna drew their games.

At the top of the tables, Russia defeated China with a 3-1 margin to stay in joint lead along with Armenia, who trounced Norway 4-0, both having pocketed 13.5 points. The Netherlands is on the sole third spot on 13 points followed by Uzbekistan on 12.5 points. A pack of four teams including defending champions Ukraine are next in line on 12 points while the Indian men are joint ninth at this stage with 11.5 points in their kitty.


A little before that, Ganguly crushed Ruck with his white pieces to give the team an early lead. The Indian Grandmaster, playing against the Sicilian Nazdorf also, came up with a modest opening not played at the highest level too much but found Robert off guard amidst the intricacies.

Anand played the Sicilian Nazdorf against Zoltan Almasi on the top board and the players followed a recently fashionable variation wherein the Indian ace did not quite get the counter play he was looking for in the English attack employed by his opponent.

Almasi could claim some advantage after the queens got traded in the middle game and Anand was seen skiing on thin ice once the endgame approached. The peace was signed after 49 moves.

[Site "Torino, Italy"]
[Date "2006.05.24"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Almasi(HUN)"]
[Black "Anand(IND)"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2657"]
[BlackElo "2803"]
[Opening "Sicilian: Najdorf"]
[ECO "B90"]


1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8.
Be3 Be7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. O-O-O Nbd7 11. g4 b5 12. g5 b4 13. Ne2 Ne8 14. f4 a5
15. Kb1 a4 16. Nbc1 exf4 17. Nxf4 Bxg5 18. Nxe6 Bxe3 19. Nxd8 Bxd2 20. Rxd2
Rxd8 21. Rd4 Nef6 22. Rxb4 Nc5 23. Bg2 Rfe8 24. Nd3 Nfxe4 25. Nxc5 Nxc5 26.
Bc6 Re5 27. Rd4 g5 28. b4 axb3 29. cxb3 Rc8 30. Rxd6 Ne4 31. Bxe4 Rxe4 32.
Rg1 Rc5 33. a4 h5 34. Rgd1 g4 35. R6d5 Rc3 36. Kb2 Rf3 37. a5 Ree3 38. Rb5
Rf2+ 39. Ka3 Rxh2 40. a6 Re6 41. Ra5 Re8 42. a7 Ra8 43. Rd7 Kg7 44. Rb7 Re2
45. Rb8 Re8 46. Rxe8 Rxe8 47. b4 g3 48. Rxh5 Ra8 49. Rg5+ {Game drawn}
1/2-1/2

The game moved along expected lines with hardly any variation from the mainline. Though Anand tried hard to convert an equal position into a win, it was a tough ask against Almasi, who never looked in any trouble.

With this win India are tied for 9-12 position with China among other teams.

Category: Chess , The Chess Olympiad