Indian men, Cyprus women held by Vietnam

Turin, May 23: India had a mixed bag in the second round with the men's team putting behind its first round debacle to decimate Cyprus 4-0 while the women team was held to a draw by minnows Vietnam in the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

Smarting from the 1-3 defeat against Morocco in the first round, the second seeded Indian men's team came up with a vastly improved show and won all four matches in the lop-sided affair.

Not fielding K Sasikiran, best best in absence of Viswanathan Anand who is scheduled to arrive here any time and join the team, cost India dearly and the think-tank didn't repeat the mistake.

In his first match, Sasikiran proved much superior than a lowly Antoniou Antonis and the win set the ball rolling.

Playing with black, Grandmaster P Harikrishna crashed through Kassinopoullos Polydoros's defence while national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly shrugged off his inertia to tame Aristotelous Vasileios to seal the issue. Ganguly's citymate Sandipan Chanda capped the fine run with an emphatic win against Savva Panikos to complete the drubbing.

With Anand about to join the team, Indian men's squad is firmly in the run for a podium finish here.

Their female counterparts, however, let down with Grandmaster Koneru Humpy being the sole exception.

A dominating Humpy crushed Nguyen Thi Thanh An in just 27 moves to set the tone but Dronavalli Harika lost the momentum and settled for a draw with Hoang Thi Bao Tram despite being better placed.

With Mary Ann Gomes rested, Swati Ghate was playing on the third board against Le Thanh Tu and the Indian's misadventure saw her capitulating to the Vietnamese player in 36 moves with the score levelled at 1.5-1.5.

The Indian women meet Croatia in their next outing.

UNI