Bad day for India in Chess Olympiad

It was a day Indian chess would want to forget, as its men's and women's teams suffered comprehensive losses at the hands of Lithuania and Georgia respectively in the fifth round of the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia, on Thursday.

A 3-0 spanking by former champions Georgia saw the Indian women slip to joint 23rd position while the men's 3-1 loss to Lithuania meant they fell way behind in the standings to be placed joint-39th.

Springing a major surprise, Bosnia-Herzegovina defeated overnight joint leaders Poland 3-1 and shot into sole lead in the men's section with 15.5 points, ahead of holders Russia and Armenia.

In the women's section Georgia emerged the leaders on 12 points, followed by the United States on 11.5.

In the women's category, India's Woman Grandmaster S Vijayalakshmi suffered her first defeat in the Olympiad, going down to Nana Iosliani, a former World Championship finalist, on the top board.

Vijayalakshmi, a silver medallist on top board in the last edition at Istanbul, missed some chances against Iosliani, who played white. Vijaylakshmi's hopes slowly diminished in the middle game and she eventually succumbed to pressure.

International Woman Master Aarthie Ramaswamy went for an erroneous plan in the middle game and was methodically punished by Woman Grandmaster Nino Khurtsidze.

Aarthie played with white pieces and faced the Sicilian defence. After equalising, Nino went for complications and caught her opponent off guard.

On the third board, Swati Ghate failed to put up a desirable show against Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and lost a keenly-contested game.

The biggest setback for the Indian men's team came when Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran lost to Eduardas Rozentalis with white pieces. Playing after a day's rest, Sasikiran tried too hard in a slightly better position and had to pay a heavy price. The middle game hung in balance and in fact it was Rozentalis who made the first mistake.

However, Sasikiran missed the chance and went for a complicated exchange sacrifice to bow down after 75 moves.

"I was placed worse and he had the advantage but I was lucky to turn the tables. The exchange sacrifice was perhaps premature," Rozentalis said after the game.

This was Sasikiran's second straight loss with white pieces after the defeat to Kasparov in the third round.

On the second board double GM norm holder Surya Shekhar Ganguly gave his team half a point with a draw against Sarunas Sulskis, who won the last Goodricke International Open in Ganguly's home city Kolkata.

Playing the Arkhengelsk variation of the Ruy Lopez, Ganguly managed to wriggle out of opening easily with equality but lost a pawn in the ensuing rook and pawns endgame. But the game was always within the boundaries of a draw that was agreed to after 60 moves.

Earlier reports:
Round 4: Indian teams back to winning ways
Round 3: Indian men falter against Russia
Round 2: India continue good showing at Chess Olympiad
Round 1: Indians off to a winning start at Chess Olympiad