India wins round five at chess Olympiad

Chennai: Indian chess teams - open and women - have won their fifth round outing against Montenegro and Austria respectively at the 41st World Chess Olympiad in Norway.

The Indian open team won its match scoring 3.5-0.5, while the eves team blanked the Austrians 4-0. Coming back on the top board after a day`s rest, Indian Grandmaster (GM) Parimarjan Negi faced the Sicilian defence from Montenegro GM Nikola Djukic. The Indian decided to go for attack castling on his queen side and opened up his king side. On the 17th move, the players traded off their queens and the game progressed with the players ending up with opposite coloured bishops. With Negi set to queen one of his pawns, Djukic resigned. On the second board, GM S.P. Sethuraman with black pieces made short work of GM Dragisa Blagojevic`s campaign and wrapped up the match in 32 moves. The Indian team`s seasoned player K. Sasikiran outplayed GM Milan Drasko in just 22 moves. The last board saw GM B. Adhiban playing evenly against Kosic Dragan for large part of the game. When the game entered its final stage, the Indian was suffering a positional disadvantage. But Adhiban managed to continue deftly and split points at the end of the 95th move. The women`s team entered the fray resting International Master (IM) Tania Sachdev against their much lower-rated Austrian eves. On the top board, Indian GM Harika Dronavalli proved her expertise logging a fluent win over Austrian player Veronika Exler in 33 moves. The second and third boards saw IM Eesha Karavade and WGM Mary Ann Gomes winning against Katharina Newrkla and Julia Novkovic respectively. With all her team mates winning their games, WGM Padmini Rout too followed suit against Elisabeth Hapala. Meanwhile, the much expected game between World Champion the world`s highest rated player Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen and world`s second highest rated player Levon Aronian of Armenia ended in a draw in 58 moves. Meanwhile, Russia drew with Bulgaria 2-2 with Russian GM Valdimir Kramnik getting the better of his arch rival GM Veselin Topolov.