It was 3.30 AM in the night. I had just finished writing a report on a tournament which was won by a talented Indian youngster ahead of many 2600 players! (yes you will get to read it in a day or two on chessbase website!) Indian mens team had drawn their game with Argentina and Indian women team had lost against Ukraine in the round 9 of the olympiad! Negis brilliant defensive effort against Peralta, Sethuramans one move miss against Mareco Sandro, Sasikirans constant pressure on Felgaer Rueben which was drawn thanks to both of them not even moving a pawn for 50 moves(yes thats another tiresome way to draw a game!) and lastly Adhibans miraculous escape at the hands of Diego Flores in which the Indian was dead lost. I could have written all this but I decided that before I die from constant writing and tiredness, I should take a nap. And yeah I didnt want to miss my flight Barcelona- Germany the next day. So morning I woke up and got ready to go to the airport. I had decided that I would write the round 9 report at the airport when I would be done with all the security check and stuff! As I sat down to write I realized that I had only 15 minutes of free wi-fi! Hahah!! It was such a co-incidence. The match India-Argentina had been decided thanks to time pressure when Sethu couldnt find a one move win and Adhibans opponent couldnt finish him off and now my report too was faced with every chess players nightmare: the lack of time! I wrote the entire report and just when I was about to click on post, my minutes were over and the page could not be reloaded!! :D I knew exactly how you botch up winning positions in time pressure!! :D ROUND 10. The flight to Dresden was excellent. And I was in Germany! So Germany got something from India (i,e me), it was logical that Indians had to get something from Germany!!! And yes we did!! We beat the extremely strong 12th seeded German team 2.5-1.5. What was simply amazing is that the Germans had not lost a previous match in this Olympiad and they had played strong teams like USA, Norway, Cuba etc. Their fate was to decided by the mighty Indians! :) Parimarjan Negi on the top board I am sure must be considering to back his decision about retirement very seriously. After all he drew comfortably with black against Arkadij Naiditsch the man who had beaten Magnus Carlsen just a few rounds ago!! It was a Sicilian Taimanov in which Negi played a very interesting idea of taking on d4 and then quickly developing his queenside with b5 Bb7 and Rc8. The plan of Nh6 followed by f6 was also unusual but I guess Negi had a very good idea of what he was doing as he never really let the position out of his control. In the knight endgame the number of pawns for both sides fluctuated but material was always excahnged with activity. For eg when Naiditch won a pawn, Negis knight became active, when Negi won a pawn, Naiditschs knight and king became active! Such is the relation of material and activity in chess. It was finely balanced by both these Grandmasters and the draw was a logical result. Sethuraman played the in-form Gerog Meier. Meier had recently defeated the ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik with ease. Of course Meier would be no push over! Sethuraman came extremely well prepared to the game. He played a sort of side in the Catalan which was sharp at the same time if the players knew the theory well, it would be equal. Meier equalised with ease in the opening. But then something fantastic happened. Sethuraman outplayed his opponent in superb style and gained a nearly decisive advantage. Usually its the higher rated opponent who does this after they reach an equal position after the opening. This just shows how under rated Sethuraman really is. The win was definitely some way off but there was no doubt that the Indian player was better. Maybe he saw that his team didnt require anything more than a draw from him to win the match! Adhiban against David Baramidze from the White side of the Ruy Lopez. The game was interesting and maybe the Indian player held the advantage but later it started tending towards the a draw. Now picture this scenario: The team has won the match because the score is 2:1 with Sasikiran already having done the damage by beating Nisipeanu. On your board you have a knight and rook vs rook which really is a dead draw.(not forgetting that Kasparov beat Polgar!!) Many players would have agreed to a draw there. After all the match has been won. But not Adhiban. He tried for a full fifty moves. David Baramidze defended accurately and the game was draw. But this just shows how hungry Adhiban was for a win. I think in his life he has never made 7 draws in a tournament! But he is doing the job for the team by not losing any of the games! And finally the game of day and the Man of Day Krishnan Sasikiran! The National Champion of India rose upto the occasion and dismantled Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu to give India 2.5-1.5 victory. The game started with the schlecter variation of slav. This development of bishop to g6 is sort of passive. White gets everything that he wants. Development of his pieces and has more space. But there is one crucial factor in the position. A lot of pieces remain on the board. Just the kind of position one wants when he is trying for a win! Sasikiran kept the tension on the board. Not prematurely exchanging any pieces. And at the right moment he started to push the kingside pawns down the board!! h5-g5-g4!! Nisipeanu was clearly flustered. He couldnt really see where blacks next strike would come from. Rather than being under the constant stress of losing something instantly he decided to give up a pawn and exchange the queens!! This is exactly what Sasi wanted as he quickly exchanged all the pieces and went into a winning bishop endgame. Nisipeanu didnt even wait for Sasi to show his endgame technique. He just knew that the Indian would convert it! He resigned and Indians registered a sensational victory. A word about Sasis win. In crucial encounters what differentiates the experienced from the freshers is the control on nerves. In such situations Sasikirans experience is tremendous. When in National Premier he needed a last round win against Shyam Nikil, he didnt play flashy chess. He just kept the pieces on board. He kept the pressure. Its too difficult. Thoughts like how beautiful championship trophy is and what will the do with three lakh prize money, or how happy my well wishers would be etc start to enter the mind. But not with Sasi and hence I say he is a gem of Indian chess. He proved it yesterday with a win over Nisipeanu!! So what do we have now. Indian men have kept up their pace. They are on the 8th position with a score of 15/20. Here is the ranking list after round 10. 1China CHN 10 7 3 0 17 2Hungary HUN 10 7 2 1 16 3France FRA 10 7 1 2 15 4Ukraine UKR 10 6 3 1 15 5Russia RUS 10 6 3 1 15 6United States of America USA 10 6 3 1 15 7Uzbekistan UZB 10 7 1 2 15 8India IND 10 6 3 1 15 9Azerbaijan AZE 10 6 3 1 15 10Poland POL 10 7 1 2 15 Chinese men are at the brink of history. If they win it tomorrow then they will be the first Asian nation to win an olympiad gold!! :) The standings are based on the tie break of Sonneborn-Berger system. S after match points, its not game points. Its SB. Instead of trying to explain you how SB works (which will take me another hour to write!!) suffice it to say that its not good news for India. Based on game points we would have been on 5th position. But now we are on 8th. In any case we cannot help it. The good news for us is that on 15 points we are meeting I think the team that is the weakest at least on paper. We are playing Kazakhstan. This means we have a great chess of winning the final round tomorrow. (today is a rest day). This is what the pairing would be like: Negi vs Kasimzdhanov (2700) Sethu vs Anton Fillipov (2615) Sasikiran vs Dzhumaev Marat (2510) Adhiban vs Vakhidov Jahongir (2471) Now I think the real tension is on board one. But considering the Negi was able to neutralize Aronian, I guess Kasimdzhanov should not be such a huge worry. Sethuraman with black against Fillipov will be a close game. But the pairing really in our favour is Sasi having the white pieces against Dzhumaev. Dzhumaev though not so strong is playing at a 2660 performance here. But when compared Sasi is a class apart. Add to it white pieces and Sasi;s character of rising upto the big occasions and I think we should have a point here. And lastly Vakhidov Jahongir is a talented youngster from Uzbekistan. But when compared with Adhibans talent it just falls a little short!! :) So my dear friends I am predicting a 2.5-1.5 victory for India! Assuming that it happens, what are our medal chances?!! This is how the round 11 pairing looks 1 15 POL Poland 27½ 15 : 17 28½ China CHN 7 2 5 HUN Hungary 27 16 : 15 27 Ukraine UKR 4 1 RUS Russia 26 15 : 15 27 France FRA 3 5 8 AZE Azerbaijan 25½ 15 : 15 26½ United States of 6 19 IND India 27 15 : 15 25 Uzbekistan UZB 33 Now this calculation comes from my dear friend Vidit Gujrathi who worked out that theoretically India does have a chance of winning a bronze medal!! Assuming India wins against Uzbekistan, we reach 17. Then China thrash Poland which is very much possible. Poland is out China is 1st. Hungary or Ukraine Someone wins and finished 2nd. Then Russia and France end in a 2-2 draw which is possible as the two teams are well matched and also Azerbaijan and USA end in a 2-2 draw which is also possible! And lo and Behold Indian team returns with a bronze medal!! :D :D So before I start building up dreams and they all come crashing down like the story Shaikh Chilli , let me put all these predcitions on hold and hope that the Indian team will give their best! As for the womens team they are currently on 19th place with a score of 14/20. The chance of a medal does not exist because China, Ukraine and Russia are already on 17 points and more. The Indian eves face Romania in the last round. I sincerely hope that they win the match and that will definitely help them to finish on fifth or sixth place which is a very respectable finish. And yes I will be specially following the game of Padmini Rout (if she is playing) because she has an amazing possibilty of winning a gold medal on the reserve board. 7.5/8 with a rating performance of 2584 she is leading the performers on the 5th board right now. The only competition she has is from Guo Qi of China who has a 2549 performance. But I think Padmini will win a gold!! A dream debut for the little girl from Orissa!! :) Tomorrow will be a cracker of a day at the Olympiad! My dear friends, have a good rest day today! Brush up your openings, sharpen your tactics and work on your endgame technique!! Tomorrow team India needs each one of you to cheer for them!! And if everything works out well who knows we will win the first Olympiad medal in the history of Indian chess!! :) :) :) GO TEAM INDIA!!
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:46:06 +0000
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