Astana: The Indian men stayed afloat in the World Team Chess Championship by holding defending champions China to a 2-2 draw here Friday.
After the end of the fourth round, Indian men are placed joint second in the standings.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly provided the breakthrough for the Indians with some amazing performance with black pieces against Taimanov Sicilain, while youngster Aravindh Chithambaram could not tackle experienced Bu Xiangzhi.
Krishnan Sasikiran and S P Sethuraman then played out quiet draws.
Another excellent result by a depleted Indian team means they will remain in the thick of things with five rounds still to come in the premier team event of the world.
The Russian men took it easy in the round settling for draws on all four boards with England and thereby taking their tally up to seven points out of a possible eight. The United States were held to a draw by local favourites Kazakhstan and India, England and USA now share the
One of the fancied at the start, the Azerbaijan team seems to have run out of steam as they suffered another jolt at the hands of Sweden.
In the women’s championship being held simultaneously, the Indians suffered a setback in their quest as they were mowed 0.5-3.5 by top seeded Russian women. Soumya Swaminathan was the only player who could hold a draw on the second board against Alexandra Kosteniuk while Eesha Karavade, on the top board, lost to Katerya Lagno.
Tania Sachdev could not match Alexandra Goryachkina and Olga Girya proved too stronger for Bhakti Kulkarni.
The Indian women will have to do a lot of hard work to come back in the remaining rounds but a medal seems to be on roll for the Indian men if they can tackle the tougher games ahead.
PTI
