World Youth Chess: India Green bounces back, but Russia still in command

Russians posted another comprehensive victory in the seventh round, this time over Turkey, to take their tally to the maximum 14 points.

P. Iniyan watches his India Green team-mate Aryan Chopra play in the seventh round of the World Youth Chess Olympiad at Ahmedabad.

The rest day seemed to have refreshed India Green.

After the disappointment in the two previous rounds at the World Youth Chess Olympiad, the main team of the host bounced back in style, winning both its matches at the Karnavati Club here on Saturday. That helped it move to the second position at the end of the seventh round.

There was no change, however, at the top, as the Russians posted another comprehensive victory, this time over Turkey, to take their tally to the maximum 14 points. With just two rounds remaining, they have a lead of three points over India Green. Armenia and Iran are sharing the third spot, with 10 points apiece, one ahead of India Blue. The third team from the host, India Red, has eight points.

Seventh round preview: Onus on India Green to resurrect campaign

For the top-seeded India Green, the star performer has been P. Iniyan, who has scored a mighty impressive 5.5 points from six games. It is his superb show that has softened the setbacks the team has suffered because of the indifferent form of its top two players, Aryan Chopra and R. Praggnanandhaa.

Iniyan won both his games on Saturday. He rated his victory with black pieces against Maksim Ivannikau, in the match against Belarus, as one of his best. He romped home in 55 moves after winning a couple of pawns. “I am happy with the way I played,” said the Tamil Nadu player. “I could find the correct moves most of the time.”

• Turkey lost to Russia 1-3 (Deniz Ozen drew with Sergei Lobanov; Ekin Ozenir lost to Artur Gaifullin; Emre Dedebas lost to Timur Fakhrutdinov; Alparslan Isik drew with Alexandra Obolentseva).
• Belarus lost to India Green 1-3 (Viachaslau Zarubitski beat Aryan Chopra; Olga Badelka lost to R. Praggnanandhaa; Maksim Ivannikau lost to P. Iniyan; Arseni Kotau lost to R. Vaishali).
• Iran beat India Red 4-0 (Amin Tabatabaei beat Rajdeep Sarkar; Alireza Firouzja beat S. Jayakumaar; Aryan Gholami beat Arjun Erigaisi; Anousha Mahdian beat Mitrabha Guha).
• Armenia beat Mongolia 3-1 (Aram Hakobyan Dambasuren Batsuren; Shant Sargsyan Sugar Ganerdene; David Mirzoyan Ganzorig Amartuvshin; Mamikon Gharibyan Sumiya Chinguun).
• Malaysia lost to Uzbekistan 1-3 (Yinn Long Wong lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev; Lik Zang Lye lost to Shamsiddin Vokhidov; Jun Ying Tan beat Saidakbar Saydaliev; Jen Sheng Ng lost to Sitora Saparova).
• Israel lost to India Blue 0.5-3.5 (Or Bronstein drew with Mohan Kushagra; Nisim Iliaguev lost to Rahul Srivatshav; Dan Poleg los to Rakesh Kumar Jena; Alexander Zlatin lost to Aronyak Ghosh).
• Sixth round: Russia beat Iran 3-1; India Green beat India Red 3.5-0.5; Uzbekistan lost to Turkey 1-3; Israel drew with Mongolia 2-2; Kazakhstan lost to Armenia 0-4; Argentina lost to Belarus 1.5-2.5; India Blue beat Canada 2.5-1.5.