Indian teams notch impressive wins in chess Olympiad

Indian chess teams - open and women's section - won against Qatar and the Netherlands respectively in the seventh round of the World Chess Olympiad being held in Norway Saturday.

The 19th seeded Indian open team scored 3-1 against Qatar, winning two and drawing two games, while the fifth seeded women's team won against the Netherlands 3.5-0.5.

On the top board, Indian Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi playing black against GM Mohamad Al-Modiahki did not face much problem. The game started with both the players pushing their king pawn two squares and proceeded to play the Ruy Lopez opening line.

Though the Qatar player had a slight positional advantage, both the players signed the peace treaty at the end of 34nd move.

As expected, the Indian team brought back GM Sethuraman S.P., who has been playing well in this tournament till date without losing a game.

Playing with white pieces, Sethuraman made short work of his opponent GM Mohammed Al-Sayed to wrap up the game in 30 moves.

The third board saw a long duel between Indian GM K. Sasikiran and Chinese-born Qatar-settled GM Chen Zhu after marrying top board player Al-Modiahki.

Playing white, Zhu opened with her queen pawn to which Sasikiran replied with moving his knight to f6 square. The game progressed with Zhu having positional advantage for some time but the tide changed later in favour Sasikiran.

Zhu resigned on the 62th move facing huge material loss.

On the fourth board, Indian GM B. Adhiban drew against much lower rated IM Husein Aziz Nezad.

On the eves side, the Indian team led by GM Harika Dronavalli on the top board drew against the Netherland GM Zhaogin Peng in 48 moves.

Indian IM Tania Sachdeva, who was re-inducted into the playing team, won against lower rated WIM Anne Haast.

The third board saw a good duel between two WGMs - India's Mary Ann Gomes and the Netherlands' Bianca Muhren. The game ended on the 77th move when Muhren conceded defeat.

On the last board, WGM Padmini Rout did not face much problem from IM Tea Lanchava to win the game.

Meanwhile, the day's biggest upset was the defeat of world champion GM Magnus Carlsen at the hands of German GM Arkadij Naiditsch in 62 moves.

Germany beat Norway 2.5-1.5.