Eves' medal hopes dashed, Anand loses to unheralded Canadian

Turin, June 4 (UNI) Medal hopes of the Indian women's team lay in tatters after a rout at the hands of Ukraine while the men's team bit dust against Canada with Viswanathan Anand suffering a shock defeat against his unheralded opponent in the 12th and penultimate round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here.

With a 1.5-2.5 defeat against Canada, the second seeded Indian men's team plummeted to 33rd place, while the 05.-2.5 trouncing against Ukraine pushed the eves to the eighth place, putting paid to their medal hopes in the tournament.

It was a shocking display by the men, especially Anand who is all set to lose precious rating points after his defeat against Pascal Charbonneau, who is almost 300 points below him.

K Sasikiran was held by Mark Bluvshtein before P Harikrishna recorded the lone Indian win of the day against Thomas Krnan but national champion and Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly, playing with white, could not maintain the tempo and was stunned by IM Thomas Roussel-Roozmon.

In the women's section, Koneru Humpy, for once, looked off-colour and lost to lowly rated Ukrainian WGM Natalia Zhukova on the top board while WGM Dronavalli Harika came a cropper against Katerina Lahno.

Swati Ghate's gritty draw against Anna Ushenina was of little consolation amid the rout.

Meanwhile, the Armenian men's team (34) has assured itself of the Gold, staying 2.5-point adrift of second placed China, while the Ukrainian eves (26) are all set to top the women's chart with a full two-point lead over nearest rival Russia.

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