Led by another brillianton slaught by Grandmaster K Sasikiran and double GM norm holder Surya Shekhar Ganguly, India crushed United States 3-1 and moved to joint 8th position with 20.5 points after the eighth round of the 35th Chess Olympiad here. But the Indian women team failed to keep up the momentum and went down to Bulgaria 1-2 after missing out on several winning chances. Russia scored their seventh victory in the Olympiad when they toppled Netherlands 2.5-1.5 to remain atop the tables on 24 points and are followed by Hungary on 22.5 points. In the women’s section Georgia (19) stretched its lead by two points defeating defending champion China 2.5-0.5. United States on 17 points shared the second spot while India were placed in a joint 13th position with six more rounds to go. Sasikiran took a step ahead in establishing himself in the elite group with a finely crafted victory over Gregory Kaidanov on the top board. Playing white, Sasikiran opened with the queen pawn and faced the queen’s gambit declined by Kaidanov. Just after the opening, Sasikiran took the initiative with a timely pawn advance in the centre and succeeded in weakening Kaidanov’s pawn structure that proved the vital factor after the exchange of queens. To top it off Sasikiran obtained the bishop pair and crippled the knights of Kaidanov who pawns fell like nine pins towards the end of the game. Sasikiran completed the rout in 54 moves. ‘‘Kaidanov played a couple of weak pawn moves that gave me the advantage and after I got the bishop it was easy,’’ Sasikiran said. Surya Shekhar Ganguly is certainly on a roll here. The Kolkata-based player looks set to obtain his final GM norm as he has already scored 4.5 points in his 6 games so far. Playing white on the third board against GM Larry Christiansen, Ganguly was up against a Caro Kann Defence. The middle game was fiercely fought after the players castled on opposite flanks in the classical set up and Ganguly was the first to obtain the breakthrough that opened up the kingside and made possible a dangerous navigation. Christiansen had no answer to a perfectly calculated attack and his position collapsed when Ganguly obtained irresistible threats against the king. The end for Christiansen came in just 40 moves. ‘‘I played quite solidly, got a favourable position and it turned out to be a comfortable victory,’’ said Ganguly after the game.
