India's men's team bounced back with an easy 3-1 victory over Austria in the fifth round of the 32nd Chess Olympiad, in Dresden, Germany.
Aided by fine victories by former World Junior champion P Harikrishna and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the Indians took their points tally to eight out of a possible 10 to be placed joint-seventh.
As many as six teams emerged joint leaders on nine points in the 11-round event after the summit clash between Germany and Russia ended in a 2-2 draw with peace being the order of the day on all four boards.
This result enabled England, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Armenia catch the two overnight leaders atop the table after all these four teams scored victories over Italy, Norway, Hungary and the Netherlands respectively.
In the women's section, World junior girls' champion D Harika proved expensive as 11th seeds India succumbed to a 1.5-2.5 loss against eighth seeds Hungary.
The loss to Hungary proved expensive as the Indian women slumped to joint 14th place on seven points.
Nisha Mohota was on the receiving end against Vajda Szidonia on the second board while Tania Sachdev, Swati Ghate and Mary Ann Gomes played out draws against Hoang Thanh Trang, Eldiko Madl and Veronica Schneider respectively.
China emerged sole leader in this section after scoring a thumping 3.5-0.5 victory over Poland on the top board. Hungary solely occupies second spot on nine points while 11 teams including top seed Russia now have eight points and share the third spot jointly.
Amongst the Indian men, P Harikrishna continued with his winning ways and downed Stefan Kindermann of Austria with black pieces. The Indian played with black pieces and faced the Italian opening.
Equalizing early with a recently popular variation, Harikrishna did not have much trouble in outplaying his opponent in 43 moves.
Ganguly gave the Indian team an early lead at the expense of Valery Atlas, who employed the Sicilian Scheveningen as black. The Kolkata-based player went for the Keres attack and cruised home in just 34 moves.
The top board duel between Krishnan Sasikiran and Markus Ragger ended in a draw while G N Gopal got the same result on the fourth board against Martin Neubauer.
The sixth round will resume after Tuesday's rest day.
The English team had some tense moments as their spearhead Michael Admas went down to teenager Caruana Fabiano but Nigel Short and David Howell ensured an easy victory for the team in the end.
Important results Round 5 Open (Match points in brackets):
Men: Armenia (9) beat Netherlands (7) 2.5-1.5; Germany '1' (9) drew with Russia (9) 2-2; Hungary (7) lost to Ukraine (9) 1.5-2.5; Norway (7) lost to Azerbaijan (9) 1-3; England (9) beat Italy (6) 2.5-1.5; India (8) beat Austria (6) 3-1 (Krishnan Sasikiran drew with Markus Ragger, Stefan Kindermann lost to P Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Valeri Atlas, Martin Neubauer drew with G N Gopal); Poland (8) beat Costa Rica (6) 3.5-0.5; China (8) beat Scotland (6) 2.5-1.5; Vietnam (7) drew with Cuba (7) 2-2; Denmark (6) lost to Israel (8) 0.5-3.5.
Women: Poland (8) lost to China (10) 0.5-3.5; Russia (8) drew with Georgia (8) 2-2; India (7) lost to Hungary (9) 1.5-2.5 (Tania Sachdev drew with Hoang Thanh Trang, Vajda Szidonia beat Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate drew with Eldiko Madl, Veronica Schneider drew with Mary Ann Gomes); Spain (6) lost to Romania (8) 1.5-2.5; Azerbaijan (7) drew with Serbia (7) 2-2; Ecuador (6) lost to Netherlands (8) 1-3; Cuba (6) lost to Uzbekistan (8) 1.5-2.5; Czech Republic (6) lost to Austria (8) 1-3; Ukraine (8) beat (6) Slovakia (6) 3-1; Lithuania (6) lost to England (8) 0-4.
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