Sweet and sour experience for India in 8th round of Chess Olympiad

Turin, May 30 (UNI) It was a mixed day for India as the Viswanathan Anand-led men's team overcame Bulgaria 2.5-1.5, while Koneru Humpy tasted her first defeat in the tournament as the eves went down to Armenia 1-2 in the eighth round of the Chess Olympiad.

Playing with black against Bulgarian Grandmaster Georgiev Kiril, Anand's game moved on the Nimzo Indian, Three Knights variation.

Anand, as usual, played a good game but Georgiev had come well prepared to give a good fight to World No 2 and the Bulgarian very cautiously moved his pieces to avoid any setback. Once the Queens got exchanged, there was hardly any opportunity for Anand to take the game and therefore graciously accepted his opponent's offer for a draw.

Meanwhile, both K Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda played some technically superior games to outclass their Bulgarian opponents.

Chanda, who lost his first round game unexpectedly against Morocco, came determined to win. Right from the begining, he played some good moves but his opponent Spasov Vasil defended well till the middle game. In the end, the Bulgarian committed a mistake and Chanda was quick to grab the opportunity and deal the knock-out blow.

''Today I came well prepared. My opponent also played very well but I kept on attacking. In the end, it looked that the game is going for a draw. Luckily, he committed a mistake and I won the game,'' Chanda told UNI immediately after his victory.

Sasikiran got the better of Ivan Cheparinov's defence and the noly setback was Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly's defeat against Aleksander Delchev.

In the women setion, Humpy, playing with white and having opening advantage, somehow threw away her positional advantage and complicated her game to the extent that in the end, despite trying hard to save it, had to accept defeat against IM Lilit Mkrtchian.

Dronavalli Harika also lost her game against Elina Danielian.

The only grace was Swati Ghate's well-earned victory againt lowly rated Siranush Andriasian on the last board.

Armenian men's team defeated Cuba 3-1 and with 24 points is leading the Olympiad.

Round 8: Men: Cuba (20.5) lost to Armenia(24) 1-3; Czech Republic(21) drew with Russia(22) 2-2; Uzbekistan(20.5) lost to Georgia(21.5) 1.5-2.5; Sweden(19.5) lost to Ukraine(22) 1-3; France(21.5) beat Netherlands (19.5) 3-1; Denmark (19.5) lost to US(21.5) 1-3; Belarus(19.5) lost to Germany(21) 1.5-2.5; China(21.5) beat Phillipines(18.5) 3.5-0.5; Bulgaria(19.5) lost to India(20.5) 1.5-2.5; Slovenia(20) beat Greece(19.5) 2.5-1.5.

Women: Russia(19) drew US(17) 1.5-1.5; Hungary(16) lost to Ukraine(18.5) 1-2; Georgia (16.5) drew Bulgaria(16) 1.5-1.5; Vietnam(16) beat Slovenia(15.5) 2-1; China(17) beat Latvia(14) 3-0; Romania(15) drew with France(15) 1.5-1.5; India(14.5) lost to Armenia(15.5) 1-2; Germany(15.5) beat Slovakia(14.5) 2-1; Cuba(15) beat Estonia(14) 2-1; Netherlands(14) lost Belarus(15) 1-2; Switzerland(13) lost to Poland(15) 0.5-2.5.

UNI XC AY GC1022