Indian men back to winning ways

The Indian men left behind defeats in two successive rounds to score a comprehensive 3-1 victory over Slovenia on Tuesday, while the women had another good day, holding Germany to a 1.5-1.5 draw in the ninth round of the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

The ninth round saw the German men succumbing to their first defeat in the tournament when they went down to the Ukraine 1.5-2.5, which enabled Armenia, who scored a thumping 3.5-0.5 win over Spain, join them atop the table with 25 points.

India with 21.5 points are placed joint 18th.

The major upset of the day was fancied Russia's loss to Bulgaria.

For Bulgaria GM Vaselin Topalov and GM Kiril Georgiev scored vital victories over FIDE World champion GM Alexander Khalifman and GM Peter Svidler respectively.

In the women's section, the Chinese (21 points) continue to lead albeit with a slender half point margin over Georgia. China were held to a 1.5-1.5 draw by Russia while the Georgian women swamped Armenia 2.5-0.5. India have 15.5 points.

The Indian team made most of their white pieces on board one and three on Tuesday. Sasikiran was given a well-deserved rest day and Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte took charge of board one. He opted for the Ruy Lopez and faced a less played variation from A Mikhailchishin.

The opening did not have any surprises and Kunte got a miniscule advantage. The queens were traded soon and in the middlegame Abhijit sensed his chances in endgame and went on an exchange spree to enter a rook and pawn endgame.

Correct play by Mikhailchishin might have held the day but technical expertise of Abhijit prevailed as he won after 65 moves.

On the second board, IM P Harikrishna drew with D Sermek to provide a much needed consolidation to the team's lead. In the French defence, Harikrishna has mastered the art of holding any opposition and was no exception.

In the Tarrasch variation, Sermek blitzed the opening moves and soon a level queen-less middle game was arrived at. Thereon, the exchanges took place at regular intervals and peace treaty was signed after 31 moves.

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua scalped G Mohr in a perfect street-fighting manner. Barua employed an unconventional set-up to counter the Sicilian defence and got the Queenside pawn majority.

Mohr erred in the ensuing endgame by pushing his pawns on the Queenside as Barua obtained connected passers to cast the die. The game lasted 43 moves.

Indian captain D V Prasad settled for a draw against A Grosar in a Sicilian defence game where the former was black. After a tough middle game, Prasad emerged with a pawn plus endgame but could make no headways in resulting opposition.

WGM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi drew with K Karchiani Garsinga with white pieces. Vijayalakshmi got into opening troubles and had to repeat the moves to ensure herself a half point.

On the second board, Vijaylakshmi's sister Minakshi got a comfortabale equality out of her Slav defence and drew with E Paethz while Saheli Barua reached the same result in her game against A Koglin.