Eves blank Mongolia to move up to 6th spot, men held by Cuba

Turin, Jun 1 (UNI) Koneru Humpy led the Indian women's team to a clean sweep against Mongolia but Viswanathan Anand remains off-colour as the men's squad settled for a 2-2 draw against Cuba in the 10th round of the ongoing 37th Chess Olympiad here.

The women's team thus moved to the number six position with 19.5 points while their male compatriots is placed 12th with 24.5 points.

The Armenian men's team looks unbeatable and they top the table with 29 points while Ukrain leads the women's chart, with 23 points.

PLaying with black, Humpy was in sparkling form against Bathuyag Mongontuul of Mongolia in the game that was fought on the Sicilian lines.

The Mongolian played a very aggressive game but Humpy kept her cool and defended well. Mongontuul lost the plot in the middle game as Humpy outplayed her in the end game.

''My opponent played a very aggressive game but towards the end, she committed a mistake and instead of exchanging, gave up a piece.

That made my job easier and I won,'' a smiling Humpy later told UNI.

Relieved after the team was back to winning ways, Humpy said, ''I think after two defeats we had a very comfortable victory here but we will now be meeting very tough teams and will have to be careful about our performance.'' In other boards, Dronavalli Harika beat Dulamsuren Yanjindulam while Swati Ghate got the better of Zorigt Bayaraa to complete the rout.

The Indian men team, however, was not equally impressive against Cuba.

Viswanathan Anand continues to be held by his opponents and this time it was Batista Lazaro Bruzon.

Playing with black, anand defended well against the Cuban but eventually had to split point in a game that continued on the Catalan Open, Classical line.

Other matches also failed to yield any result as K Sasikiran drew with Leinier Dominguez Perez and P Harikrishna signed truce with Jesus Nogueira Santiago.

Only Surya Shekhar Ganguly tried hard for a win and in the end game won a piece too but his knight failed to force a win and he too had to split point.

After 10 rounds the players have given a rest day and will meet again tomorrow for the 11th Round.

Round 10 Results: Men: Armenia (29) bt China (27) 2.5-1.5 ; France (26) drew with USA (25.5) 2-2; Ukraine (24.5) lost to Russia (26.5) 1-3 ; Czech Republic (26.5) beat Slovenia (23.5) 3.5-0.5 ; Cuba (25) drew with India (24.5) 2-2; Uzbekistan (25) beat Germany (24) 2.5-1.5; Denmark (24.5) beat Moldova (23.5) 2.5-1.5; Croatia (24) drew with Greece (24) 2-2 ; Sweden (23) lost to Israel (24.5) 1.5-2.5; Georgia (24.5) beat Turkey (22.5) 3-1, Women: Ukraine (23) beat Georgia (20) 2-1 ; Russia (22.5) beat Bulgaria (19.5) 2-1 ; Armenia (19) lost to China (20.5) 1-2; France (19) drew with USA (19) 1.5-1.5 ; Croatia (18.5) drew with Romania (18.5) 1.5-1.5 ; Greece (19.5) beat Lithuania (17.5) 2.5-0.5 ; Vietnam (17.5) lost to Hungary (18.5) 1-2; Mongolia (16.5) lost to India (19.5) 0-3 ; Slovenia (19) beat Israel (17) 2.5-0.5 ; Germany (17.5) drew with Belarus (17.5) 1.5-1.5 ; Colombia (15.5) lost to Poland (18.5) 0-3.

UNI XCV AY PM1054