What a wonderful round was round 2 for Team India! A seemingly dangerous pairing against Canadian team and a tough match was on cards! But the Indian men played simply fantastic chess to score a 3.5-0.5 whitewash! Everything worked out just perfectly for us! Parimarjan Negi was on the top board who as I have previously mentioned is a complete monster with the white pieces! He lived upto his reputation scoring a very important win against the young Anton Kovalyov (2622). Usually Negi has it all worked out in the opening especially when its Sicilian defense. But today it seemed he was on his own pretty soon out of the opening. He was a pawn down but the black king was weak. And by continuously putting pressure on the opponent, Kovalyov crumbled and it meant India got a very important point. Usually when your top player loses the team often loses. With Kovalyov out of the line, all the eyes where on Hansen Eric (2593) vs Sethuraman. Sethuraman chose the ultra sharp French Winawer. A line in which black goes out of his way to give up his dark square bishop to create a completely imbalanced position. And I think it was a great idea especially because Hansen Eric is still awaiting his luggage to arrive in Tromso that was misplaced by the airlines! With so much on his mind its usually not easy to concentrate. The opening worked wonderfully for Sethu as he built up a nearly winning position. But something somewhere went wrong and in a move he lost his advantage. What was wonderful to see was the objectivity from the young lad who took the draw when he saw he no longer had the advantage! Sasikiran vs IM Gerzhoy Leonid was a complete massacre!! The way Sasikiran played this game infuses so much confidence in Team India. Right from move 15 to move 42 Sasikiran had the Candian player on the mat and never let him get up. If you see Sasikirans picture he looks so well concentrated! It is simply amazing to see him in action! You must watch the game not only for the nice pressure maintained by the Indian super GM but also for cute queen sacrifice in the end to finish off the game! Adhiban playing black against Sambuev Bator (2528) didnt really have to do anything special. The team was winning and he could have agreed to a draw. After all the position was sort of equal. But as a true champion Adhiban fought on. And mind you his opponent wasnt a weak player. He is a strong GM. But Adhiban just completely outplayed him in an equal endgame! That shows the true strength of this Indian player is much more than his rating of 2619. A great 63 move win for Adhiban! The Canadian team looked strong on paper. But the Indian lads simply crushed them. Its a joy to see this team in action. Everyone is so motivated and ambitious. No one is making short draws. Everyone wants to win! Keep up the spirit guys! The Women team also crushed Denmark with an identical score like the Men team with 3.5-0.5. But they have a strong opposition today in the form of Kazakhstan. This is how the pairing looks: WGM Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan 2336 - GM Harika, Dronavalli 2521 WGM Saduakassova, Dinara 2375 -IM Sachdev, Tanya 2418 WGM Abdumalik, Zhansaya 2333 - IMKaravade, Eesha 2392 WIM Davletbayeva, Madina 2289 - WGM Padmini, Rout 2318 Its a really well matched game. Well Indians have an edge as Harika is definitely stronger than Nakhbaeyeva but apart from that there is really very little to choose between the two teams! This one will be interesting. As for the mens team they have a stiff challenge in the form of Italy! GM Caruana, Fabiano 2801 - GM Negi, Parimarjan 2645 GM David, Alberto 2565 - GM Sethuraman, S.P. 2590 GM Vocaturo, Daniele 2587 - GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2669 GM Brunello, Sabino 2560 - GM Adhiban, B. 2619 The top board of the Italian team Fabiano Caruana who has recently entered into the 2800 elite group is the real problem. And add to that Negi has the black pieces against him. If Negi can even gain half a point against him it will be a huge boost for the Indian team. Sethuraman has the edge over David Alberto. Not only is Sethu white but David Alberto who was once around 2650 is now 2565. Not really in best of forms! Sasikiran is definitely the stronger player. But Vocaturo is an ambitious guy and with white he will try to beat Sasi. Maybe Sasi can use this over ambition of his opponent in his favour. And lastly the most critical encounter is Adhiban vs Sabino. Sabino who has been trained by Aagaard is a really good player and he proved it by winning the Wijk Aan Zee C group last year. But Adhiban has his first white and considering the form he is in Indians should have an edge. Apart from the top board we really have an advantage on all other boards but who will win? Your guess is as good as mine! Tune into the action at 18.30 IST. heres the link: https://chess24/en/olympiad2014/live/ Lastly the very surprising news from round 2 was the drawn encounter between Norway and Finland. All the games ended in a draw and not only that Carlsen was unable to win against Tomi Nyback who had beaten him in 2008 Olympiad! So as of now Tomi has a score of 1.5-0.5 against Carlsen! Anand might be looking to contact him for some tips later this year!! :D :D
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:40:54 +0000
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