Indian eves meet Egypt in round six of World Women team C'ship

Chengdu: Charged up by a fine 3-1 victory, the Indian eves will take on last-placed Egypt in the sixth round of the World Women team chess championship here.

While the permutation and combinations have not worked so far for the team, they are still in with a chance if they can finish with a flourish in the last four remaining rounds when they meet Georgia, Poland and Armenia besides Egypt.

The Koneru Humpy-led team has missed out on a couple of golden opportunities and while the score card may reflect otherwise, they are still in with a chance for the podium finish if they can finish with four victories in last four rounds.

The most crucial among these will be the match against leaders Georgia in the seventh round when Humpy would also like D Harika to use her white pieces to perfection.

Tied sixth after five rounds in the ten-teams round-robin championship, the main problem for the team has been on the fourth board but there too, Soumya Swaminathan scored the first points at the expense of American opponent in the previous round.

Georgians on nine points out of a possible ten are a little ahead of Russia on eight points. Hosts China are on seven, a full point clear of Armenian ladies while Ukraine is fifth on five points thus far.

Indians share the sixth spot along with Kazakhstan and USA with four points apiece. Poland on three is ninth now while Egypt remains in the cellar with no points.

Besides Humpy and Harika, the Indians will also need the services of Padmini Rout on the third and Soumya Swaminathan on the fourth board in the last remaining rounds. With Soumya hitting form, it might just be possible to at least salvage further damages on the last board while the top two can fire on all cylinders.

An Indian victory is much on cards in the sixth round against Egypt, what happens post that is what will matter to the fortunes of this talented bunch.

Pairings round 6: India (4) v/s Egypt (0); Poland (3) v/s Russia (8); Kazakhstan (4) v/s China (7); Ukraine (5) v/s Armenia (6); USA (4) v/s Georgia (9).