England halt India's march
Spearheaded by victories from Super Grandmasters Michael Adams and Nigel Short, England halted India's march with 3-1 victory in the tenth round of the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, on Wednesday.
The Indian women too suffered a setback, losing 1-2 to Russia, with a lone win coming from Vijalakshmi Subbaraman on the top board.
Top seeds Russia extended their lead over second seeds Hungary to a full point after a 3-1 victory over China.
Former World champions Gary Kasparov and Alexander Khalifman scored for Russia with white pieces to put them on 28.5 points.
Hungary scored over Bosnia and Herzegovnia 2.5-1.5 with the crucial victory coming form Zoltan Almasi on the third board.
In the women's section, Georgia stayed on track for gold by inflicting a 2-1 defeat upon Hungary.
Top seeds China moved into second position with 21.5 points, after a thumping 2.5-0.5 victory over Greece.
Michael Adams played a terrific game with white pieces to outwit GM Krishnan Sasikiran on the top board. Sasikiran, who played the Sicilian defence, found his king caught in the center after the Englishman sacrificed a pawn. Black finally managed to swap Queens so as to take away his monarch from the epicenter but then the white rooks landed on the seventh rank. Before black could exchange the rooks, he found himself three pawns down and gave up in a bishop ending after 54 moves.
Harikrishna, who had the white pieces against former World championship challenger Nigel Short, burned his boats and sacrificed a rook to try and overpower his experienced adversary. However, black stayed healthy with his extra material and tucked his king back to safety to take the point in 43 moves.
On the third board IM S S Ganguly played resolutely to draw with GM Jonathan Speelman from the black side of the Larsen opening.
Ganguly took good control of the central squares right from the start and held back all of white's attempts to gain an advantage.
The game headed to draw in a rook endgame with exchange of pieces at regular intervals.
British champion IM R B Ramesh too played a fine game, drawing with GM Conquest on the fourth board. Ramesh, who faced the Alekhine defence, won a Queenside pawn on the 20th move. However, black found compensation in the form of active pieces and won back the pawn. In a queen and rook endgame, more pawns were exchanged and the players agreed to a eventual draw after 53 moves.
WIM Aarthie Ramaswamy and WIM Meenakshi were unrecognisable in losing their games against WGM Tatiana Kosintseva and Svetlana Matveeva respectively. Meenakshi lost in just 26 moves from the black side of the Dutch defence. Mishandling the opening and neglecting her development she paid the price when white timely opened lines against her king and forced a checkmate.
Aarthie, who had the white pieces against Tatiana, lost her game when she overlooked a simple pawn advance, putting two of her pieces under fire. Before white could co-ordinate her pieces, black targeted the kingside to force resignation from Aarthie in 32 moves.
Vijalakshmi scored the lone victory for India, defeating WGM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya with the white pieces from an irregular Fianchetto opening.
Vijayalakshmi came out of the opening with an edge and when she swung over her active queen to black's kingside, Ekaterina gave up the exchange in return for pawns. However, as black obtained a powerful 'd' passer white returned back the exchange to win the game in a knight pawn ending in 81 moves and obtain her sixth win in tournament.
Earlier reports:
Round 9: Kunte strikes as India move to fifth position
Round 8: Sasikiran, Ganguly shine
Round 7: Thumping wins for Indian men and women
Round 6: Indian men win, women draw
Round 5: Bad day for India
Round 4: Indian teams back to winning ways
Round 3: Indian men falter against Russia
Round 2: India continue good showing at Chess Olympiad
Round 1: Indians off to a winning start at Chess Olympiad
