Chess Olympiad: Indian men defeat Canada

Viswanathan Anand

Led by former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, the fifth seeded Indian team in the open section in the Chess Olympiad in Georgia coasted to a comfortable 3.5-0.5 victory against lowly rated Canada. On the top board, Anand playing black continued his winning streak with a 33-move victory over the 26-year-old Canadian Eric Hansen.

Playing with white pieces, Indian P.Harikrishna overcame the challenge posed by Razvan Preotu in 33 moves. The nail biting game on the third board between Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi with black pieces and Evgeny Bareev ended after a marathon 72 moves draw.

Gujrathi lost a horse on the 25th move. But he was three pawns up. However for a long time, Bareev had an advantage but towards the end it got equalised and Gujrathi salvaged half-a-point. On the fourth board, K.Sasikiran made short work of his opponent Aman Hambleton. On the other hand, the Indian women drew their match against the 23rd seeded Serbia 2-2.

While India's two world class players on the top two boards, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli, defeated their rivals, Eesha Karavade and Padmini Rout on the third and fourth boards lost their games.

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