Grandmaster B Adhiban won his fourth match in seven rounds to help the Indian men’s team beat formidable Ukraine 25.-1.5 and stay in the medal hunt, while the women’s side held China to a 2-2 draw in the seventh round of the World Team Chess Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia on Saturday.
Adhiban seems to have been given the green light to live by the sword on the second board and the 24-year-old has been doing just that having lost three and won three matches in the earlier six rounds.
So Saturday, Adhiban (ELO 2670) got the better of the higher rated Anton Korobov (2711) with a French opening in just 34 moves while the other three boards saw the players split points. On the top board, Vidit Gujarathi had to work hard to hold Ruslan Ponomariov after 95 moves. Krishnan Sasikiran and Parimarjan Negi, however, settled for quick draws against Alexander Areshchenko and Alexander Moiseenko respectively.
The victory took India to fourth spot with 16 points. China leads the standings with 18.5 points with India’s next round opponents Russia occupying the second spot.
In the women’s section, only Padmini Rout managed full points with white pieces against Qi Gao but her efforts were nullified by Esha Karavade’s loss on the third board while D Harika and Tania Sachdev settled for draws on the top two boards.
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