Anand leads India’s emphatic win over Paraguay

Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez.

Published : Sep 29, 2018 01:14 IST , BATUMI (GEORGIA)

Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez.
Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez.
lightbox-info

Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez.

 

Viswanathan Anand bounced back from Thursday’s setback to lead India’s emphatic 3.5-0.5 victory over Paraguay before the women’s team posted an identical scoreline against Argentina in the fifth round of Chess Olympiad here on Friday.

Though the Indian victories were expected, there were lots of surprises, too, before the event’s only rest day on Saturday.

Eleventh seed Poland, which stunned second seed Russia 2.5-1.5 on Thursday, pulled off an emphatic 3-1 surprise over seventh seed France for a share of lead with Azerbaijan, Czech Republic and Ukraine for a clean record. Of the lot, 12th seed Czech Republic humbled third seed China 3-1.

Even as top seed USA — India’s conqueror in the fourth round — was being held 2-2 by 14th seed Israel, India stayed focussed on the job in hand to score its fourth victory.

Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez, rated 2619. During this 26-move mismatch, Anand cornered the rival king on the queen’s side with a planned assault with the help of queen, rook and the black-squared bishop.

B. Adhiban won with black pieces following a dominating show against Antonio Almiron while K. Sasikiran sacrificed his queen for a rook and

bishop to halt his low-rated rival. All this while, P. Hari Krishna was involved in an equal battle with Guillermo Vaquez and soon decided to sign peace.

The Indian women moved to the joint second place, behind USA, after maintaining their unbeaten run.

The women’s quartet was heading for a possible 4-0 win at one stage before D. Harika blundered a pawn and slowly headed for a certain loss. In the meantime, Eesha Karavade opened India’s account on the fourth board and soon Tania Sachdev completed another controlled win.

K. Humpy, solid as ever, took her time to win before Harika escaped with a draw following a late blunder from her rival.

 

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment