Istanbul Chess Olympiad Round 7: Russians on the Rampage; Indian Men Draw with Argentina; Women Beat Estonia

Parimarjan Negi

This is going to be surely the best India has ever done at the Chess Olympiads. In the seventh round, at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, India held Argentina to a creditable draw. There were fighting games on all boards despite what the scoresheet reads.

Round 7 Results

Argentina-India

1 GM Peralta, Fernando (2606) ½-½ GM Sasikiran, Krishnan (2707)

2 GM Flores, Diego (2589) ½-½ GM Harikrishna, Pentala (2685)3 GM Felgaer, Ruben (2570) 1-0 GM Negi, Parimarjan (2664)4 GM Mareco, Sandro (2589) 0-1 GM Gupta, Abhijeet (2637)

In the women’s section, India had a fantastic result.

Round 7 Results

Estonia-India

1 WIM Tsiganova, Monika (2164)0-1 GM Dronavalli, Harika (2503)

2 WIM Fomina, Tatjana (2189) 0-1 IM Sachdev, Tania (2379)

3 WCM Narva, Triin (2028) 0-1 WGM Gomes, Mary Ann (2396)

4 WFM Narva, Regina (2042) 1-0 WGM Soumya, Swaminathan (2271)

Meanwhile, the seventh round brought another win for Russia as they beat Azerbaijan with three draws and a win by Alexander Grischuk on the second board in the open section. Grischuk continued to fight and corner Eltaj Safarli eventually breaking the latter’s defense.

Abhijeet Gupta

Top standings after Round 7

Russia has 13 match points. China and Ukraine have 12 points each. Armenia, USA, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Germany, Uzbekistan and Philippines have 11 points each.Armenia had another tough match this time against China on table two. Sergei Movsesian, who yesterday saved his team in the clash with Russia, fell victim to Wang Yue’s counterattack. With the other three games being drawn, China celebrated an important victory that leaves them on the shared second place, right behind Russia. (Photos: David Llada)