Men held to draw by China, women ease past Turkey in Chess Olympiad

Turin May 26 (UNI) Indian men's team led by Viswanathan Anand split points with China but Koneru Humpy inspired the women to a resounding 2.5-.5 win over Turkey in the fifth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

The second seeded men's team was held to dull draws by the Chinese team, which had just one player with higher ELO ratings than the Indians.

Anand, P Harikrishna and Sasikiran played out draws against China's Bu Xiangzhi, Zhang Zhong and Wang Yue respectively. The only bitterly fought game was played between Ni Hua and Surya Sekhar Ganguly, who held his own against his higher rated opponent and forced a draw despite Hua being in a better White position.

In the women's event, the Indian trio of Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and Swathi Ghate played well to beat Turkey.

Humpy -- playing with white -- had little trouble beating the lower rated Atalik-Polo but WGM Harika was held by to a draw by WFM Topel Zehra, while Swathi proved way too good for the Ozturk Kubr and played her usual game to take India to a comfortable win.

The men's team will now take on Germany in the sixth round on Sunday after a day's break, while the women -- seeded ninth -- will square off against Slovenia.

Meanwhile in the other important match of the men's section, top seed and tournament leader Russian team managed only one win while lost one and drew two against Armenia to finish the match 2.0-2.0.

Russia's highest ranked player Vladimir Kramnik was the only player who won and thrashed the Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian but Alexander Morozevich lost to Sargassian in an interesting encounter and the other two games ended in draws.

Results Men: India drew with China 2.0-2.0 Russia drew with Armenia 2.0-2.0 Uzbekistan drew with Netherlands 2.0-2.0 Ukraine drew with Bulgaria 2.0-2.0 USA beat Georgia 1.5-2.5 Poland beat Italy A 2.5-1.5 Greece beat Aargentina 2.5-1.5 Women: India beat Turkey 2.5-0.5 Ukraine beat Russia 2.0-1.0 Bulgaria drew with USA 1.5-1.5 Hungary beat China 2.5-0.5 Romania beat Estonia 1.0-2.0 Spain beat Lithuania 1.0-2.0 Mongolia beat Israel 0.5-2.5 Germany beat Italy A 1.5-1.5 Slovakia beat Vietnam 1.0-2.0 Armenia beat Greece 2.0-1.0 UNI XC PM RR HT1308