Tags:
Journalism of Courage
World number two Viswanathan Anand crashed to a shocking defeat while second seeded Indian men suffered another humiliation at the hands of a low ranked Canada in the 12th and penultimate round of the Chess Olympiad here.
It was a similar script in the women’s event as well, as leader Koneru Humpy lost her second game in the tournament and the team’s chances of a podium finish dimmed after going down 0.5-2.5 to top-placed Ukraine, who consolidated their hopes of a gold medal.
Besides Anand, who has not won even a single game in the tournament so far, national champion Surya Shekar Ganguly also lost his game. Former world junior champion P. Harikrishna was the only team member to win while Krishnan Sasikiran was held to a draw on the second board resulting in India’s 1.5-2.5 loss.
Atop the tables in open section, Armenia men maintained their huge 3.5 points lead over nearest rivals China with a clinical 2-2 draw with France without much ado. While all Armenian players settled for peace pretty quickly, the Chinese had to work hard for a 3-1 victory over Czech Republic and now they are firmly in second place on 31.5 points, a half point adrift of nearest rivals Russia.
Russia also did well to beat Cuba by a 3-1 margin and even as Armenia is now confirmed for the gold medal the fight for the silver was still on between Russia and China.
Anand lost early against Pascal Charbonneau on the top board and that set the tone for another disaster as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was also stunned by unheralded international master Thomas Roussel-Roozmon later in the day.
