Istanbul Chess Olympiad Round 8: Indian Men's team draw with Serbia and more

Russia beat Ukraine in Round 8

The eighth round at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul saw India draw with Serbia. The board results included GM Sasikiran, Krishnan (2707) losing to GM Ivanisevic, Ivan (2645), GM Harikrishna, Pentala (2685) drawing with GM Perunovic, Milos (2614), GM Negi, Parimarjan (2664) drawing with GM Sedlak, Nikola (2549) and GM Gopal, Geetha Narayanan (2550) beat GM Popovic, Dusan (2579).

In the women’s section, the Indian team beat Vietnam nicely with the board results being WGM Le Thao Nguyen, Pham (2393) drawing with GM Dronavalli, Harika (2503), WIM Thi Mai Hung, Nguyen (2212) beating IM Karavade, Eesha Sanjay (2371), WIM Kieu Thien Kim, Le (2226) losing to IM Sachdev, Tania (2379) and WIM Bich Ngoc, Pham (2172) losing to WGM Gomes, Mary Ann (2396).

The Philippines beat England

Three more rounds are to be played. Indian men play Georgia and women take on Russia on Thursday.

Georgia (GEO)-India (IND)

9.1 GM Mchedlishvili, Mikheil 2659 – GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 27079.2 GM Gagunashvili, Merab 2578 – GM Harikrishna, Pentala 26859.3 GM Sanikidze, Tornike 2585 – GM Gupta, Abhijeet 26379.4 GM Pantsulaia, Levan 2575 – GM Gopal, Geetha Narayanan 2550

India (IND)-Russia (RUS)

2.1 GM Dronavalli, Harika 2503 – GM Kosintseva, Tatiana 2530

2.2 IM Karavade, Eesha Sanjay 2371 – IM Gunina, Valentina 2507

2.3 IM Sachdev, Tania 2379 – GM Kosintseva, Nadezhda 25242.4 WGM Soumya, Swaminathan 2271 – GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2489

Rank after eight rounds in Open section @ Istanbul Chess Olympiad

Russia has a cool 15 points. China, Armenia, USA, Germany and the Philippines are right behind with 13 points each. Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the Netherlands, France, Israel, Argentina and Poland are in third place with 12 points each. In joint fourth place are (hold your breath) Hungary, India, Georgia, England, Uzbekistan, Czech Republic, Serbia, Belarus, FYROM, Vietnam, Italy, Slovenia, Denmark, Brazil and Austria! (in that order of tiebreaks.) That puts India in a current standing of 15th place.

Rank after eight rounds in Women’s section @ Istanbul Chess Olympiad

Among the women, China is leading with 14 points. In joint second place are Russia, France, India and Uzbekistan. According to tiebreak points, India is right there in for a medal contention at fourth place! In joint third place are Ukraine, USA, Poland, Kazakhstan and Armenia.

Meanwhile, going back to the main report for the eighth round for results apart from India, here’s some more info. Russia beat Ukraine. Sergey Karjakin uncorked a nice attacking game to beat Andrei Volokitin for Russia to win 2.5-1.5. China took an early lead against Azerbaijan as Ding Liren beat Rauf Mamedov without much trouble. But Shakhriyar Mamedyarov struck back by winning brilliantly against Wang Yue. With the other two boards being drawn, the teams have split the points, 2-2.

Armenia beat Uzbekistan 3-1, while USA beat FYROM 3-1. In the next round USA is matched against Russia on the top table. Elo doesn’t really play a game in chess, as repeatedly proven by Philippines. The 35th-seed soundly beat the strong team of England by 3-1. Oliver Barbosa on the 2nd and legendary Eugenio Torre on the 3rd board defeated their respective opponents. Germany and France have scored narrow victories against Hungary and Cuba respectively.

In the women’s section Poland lost to China 1-3. Russia had a tough time drawing with Ukraine. Anna Ushenina beat reigning Russian chess champion Natalija Pogonina. Next game to finish was the draw between Mariya Muzychuk and Valentina Gunina. In the last move before the time control Natalia Zhukova missed a tactical shot that would have brought her substantial advantage. Instead, Nadezhda Kosintseva continued to gradually improve her position and then a neat trading sequence secured her a winning Queen endgame.

As for the top board, it is sufficient to say that a draw was signed after 157(!) moves! A stubborn defence from Kateryna Lahno finally worn Tatiana Kosintseva down and the Russian player conceded a draw after holding a huge advantage for most of the game. The match ended in a 2-2 tie.

France defeated their neighbors from Spain with 3-1 to schedule a clash with the powerful China in the next round. The 35th-seed Uzbekistan is also sharing the second place, but this shouldn’t be a surprise anymore. The talented and underrated team beat Hungary, after scoring against USA in one of the previous rounds.

Don’t forget to follow all the live action from India time 5.30 pm at the official website of the 40th Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012.