Men's medal hopes shattered, eves in hunt with win against Romania

Turin, June 3 (UNI) Indian men team's medal prospects went up in the smoke after a 1-3 defeat against Israel even though the eves stayed in hunt with a 2-1 win against Romania in the 11th round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

India's best bet Viswanathan Anand failed to break his string of draws and split point with Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand on the top board and with K Sasikiran and Sandipan Chanda losing their games, the writing was clear on the wall for the side.

Sasikiran lost to Illia Smirin while Chanda went down to Boris Avrukh. P Harikrishna was lucky to escape with a draw against Emil Sutovsky.

Playing with white against Gelfand, Anand faced tough resistance from Gelfand right from the beginning as the game drifted to a ususal Sicilian Nazdorf pattern.

Anand played some good moves in the opening but Gelfand was equally impressive in his response. Anand gave a check to Gelfand's king with his 17th move but the Israeli Grnadmaster easily repulsed with his next move and after 23 moves, both the players agreed for a draw.

Indian men have 25.5 points after 11 rounds.

In the women's section, in-form Swati Ghate was the star player for India. Swati played a brilliant game against Romanian Ana Calotescu and was quick to grab the opportunity after her opponent committed a bunder under time pressure.

Talking to UNI immediately after her victory, Swati said, ''I was a bit lucky today. I was quite shaky but got a good advantage in the opening and then my opponent blundered in the time pressure and I won the game on technical superiority.'' Grandmaster Koneru Humpy also played very well but had to settle for a draw againt Corina Peptans.

Dronavalli Harika, who had black against Foisor Adela, also played a good game to hold her opponent Adela Foisor in a game which was fought on the English Symmetrical lines.

Indian eves are joint fourth, along with USA, with 21.5 points.

In the men's section, Armenia (32) defeated Czech Republic 3-1 to cement their place at the top of the table -- a clear 3.5 points ahead of China and France who are joint second with 28.5 points.

In the women section, Ukrain lead with 25.5 points, followed by Russia (24.5).

Meanwhile, on the FIDE front, Kirsan Illyumzhinov defeated Bessel Kok by a 96-57 margin to extend his stay at the helm of the world chess governing body.

Important 11th round results: Men: Armenia (32) beat Czech Republic(27.5) 3-1; China (28.5) lost to France (28.5) 1.5-2.5; USA (28) beat Russia (28) 2.5-1.5; Uzbekistan (26.5) lost to Cuba (27.5) 1.5-2.5; Romania (26.5) drew with Georgia (26.5) 2-2; Azerbaijan (25.5) lost to Ukraine (27.5) 1-3; Hungary (26.5) drew with Denmark (26.5) 2-2; India (25.5) lost to Israel (27.5) 1-3; Women: Bulgaria (20) lost to Ukraine (25.5) 0.5-2.5; Georgia (20.5) lost to Russia (23.5) 1-2; China (23.5) beat Greece (19.5) 3-0; India (21.5) beat Romania (20) 2-1; USA (21.5) beat Slovenia (19.5) 2.5-0.5; France (20.5) drew with Armenia (20,5) 1.5-1.5; Hungary (20.5) beat Croatia (19.5) 2-1; Poland (20) drew with Latvia (19.5) 1.5-1.5; Netherlands (20) beat Vietnam (18.5) 2-1.

UNI XC AY VA RS1007