Ganguly steers India to victory against Hungary, women held by

Turin, May 25 (UNI) On a day of dull draws, national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly outshone even his illustrious team mate Viswanathan Anand and came up with an inspiring performance to lead the Indian men's team to a one-point win against Hungary in the fourth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

The Indian eves, however, were held to a draw by their Georgian counterparts.

Koneru Humpy's winning spree came to an end in this round as the highest rated women player in the tournament, playing with black, split point with IM Nino Khurtsidze.

WGM Swati Ghate then earned the lead for India, beating IM Nana Dzagnidze but WIM Mary Ann Gomes could not maintain the tempo and forfeited the advantage by losing her match against Lela Javakhishvili.

Indian women's team occupy the 15th position with 8.5 points in their kitty.

In the men section, the gritty Hungarians forced draws in the first three matches before Ganguly worked out a decisigve win.

On top board, Viswanathan Anand, playing with black, defended himself well but could not force a win and eventually settled for a draw against Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi.

Playing with white, K Sasikiran had a tough time against Ferenc Berkes and failing to penetrate the Hungarian's rock-solid defence, the Indian split point and the P Harikrishna-Csaba Balogh face-off also failed to yield any result.

Ganguly, however, had other ideas and he played a good game to get the better of Robert Ruck's defence to power India to a 2.5-1.5 win.

Indian men's team is now placed 12th with 11.5 points.

Meanwhile, Russia scored over the other overnight joint leader China with a 3-1 win in the men's section.

Russia eves too were in scintillating form as they thrashed Lithuania 3-0 when both the Kosintseva sisters --Tatiana and Nadezhda -- and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya won their games.

Russian men's team share the top spot with Armenia -- both have 13.5 points -- while the eves are full 1.5 points ahead of their nearest rival Ukraine (10) at the top of the table.

Results (First 10 boards): Men: China Lost to Russia 1-3 Uzbekistan drew with Ukraine 2-2 Netherlands drew with Greece 2-2 Bulgaria beat Greece 2.5-1.5 Armenia beat Norway 4-0 Iceland lost to Spain 1.5-2.5 Italy A beat Singapore 3.5-0.5 Germany lost to Georgia 1.5-2.5 Hungary lost to India 1.5-2.5 USA beat Poland 3-1 Women: Russia beat Lithuania 3-0 China lost to Ukraine 1-2 USA beat Romania 2-1 Bulgaria beat Israel 2-1 Georgia drew with India 1.5-1.5 Slovenia lost to Germany 1-2 Italy A beat Sweden 2-1 Hungary beat France 2.5-0.5 Greec beat Belarus 2-1 Armenia beat Ecuador 2-1 UNI XC AY ND1042