Poor show by men, women in Olympiad; India further down in ranking

Turin, May 29 (UNI) Indian men and women gave a dismal performance in the 7th round of the Chess Olympiad 2006, being played here, and slipped further down in the ranking after the men lost to Ukraine while the women went down to America.

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, playing with white on Board One against Ukraine's toughest player Vassily Ivanchuk, opened with his favourite e4 to which Ivanchuk replied with e5 and after the set moves the game was played on Ruy Lopez pattern. Chucky, as he is known in the chess world, played a tactical game and did not allow Anand to come any where near his game plan.

Realising that it will be herculean affair to beat Ivanchuk, Anand, a pawn down in the end part of the game, agreed for a draw.

On the 3rd white board, Pentala Harikrishna failed to assert his white superiority against the young Sergey Karjakin and lost the game loosing one full point when India looked set to get at least a draw against young champion from Ukraine.

In contrast the other two boards with Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda playing with black defended their games against Andrei Volokytin and Pavel Elyanov respectively and drew their games giving Ukraine an upper edge. The Indian team lost the match 2.5-1.5 after all the board results.

With Koneru Humpy being rested in the 7th round, Indian women lost two games and drew one against the US. International Master Irina Krush, despite having black pieces played a good and attacking game to crush and stop the winning streak of Swati Ghate, who won her last three Round games with ease.

Mary Aan Gomez proved no match to Rusudan Goletiani and surrendered meekly.

Harika Dronavilli was the only saving grace who, despite having black pieces gave a tough fight to Anna Zatonskkih and made her accept a draw.

Koneru Humpy, who played on all the 6 previous rounds, informed UNI that she was not well for this round and preferred to take much needed rest.

She will be back playing for the country in the next few matches.

After this loss the chances of Indian women look bleak for a medal in the women Olympiad.

Armenia thrashed Netherlands to become the sole leaders with 21 points.

India with today's loss have now 18 points from 7 rounds while the Indian Women had 13.5 points had slipped further down in the ranking.

Top Boards Results: Men:-- Netherlands lost to Armenia 1.0 - 3.0 Russia '' '' Belarus 1-0 - 3.0 India '' '' Ukraine 1.5 - 2.5 (Anand Viswanathan drew with Vassily Ivanchuk, Volokytin A drew with Sasikiran K, Pentala Harikrishna lost to Karjakin Sergey, Elyanov Pavel drew with Sandipan Chanda) US beat Sweden 2.0 - 1.0 Uzbekistan beat Brazil 1.5 - 0.5 Georgia beat Poland 3.0 - 1.0 Italy A beat Portugal 2.5 - 1.5 Czech Republic beat Israel 3.0 - 1.0 Cuba beat Indonesia 3.5 - 0.5 Bulgaria beat Hungary 2.5 - 1.5 Women:-- Ukrain beat Romania 2.5 - 0.5 US beat India 2.5 - 0.5 Hungary beat Estonia 2.5 - 0.5 Ecuador beat Italy A 2.0 - 1.0 Slovenia beat Spain 2.5 - 0.5 Armenia beat Belarus 1.5 - 0.5 Latvia beat Kazakhstan 2.5 - 0.5 UNI XC VJ RN0416