Aronian’s Armenia lifts Olympiad Gold, while Ukraine takes Womens Gold.
By Vijay Kumar

Turin 4th June 2006. Armenia drew with Hungary in the first 10 minutes of the game and lifted the prestigious Olympiad Title on the Final day of the 37th Chess Olympiad that Concluded at the Oval -Lingotto here in Turin.

In the women’s Olympiad Ukraine team won the event with a clear
1.5 points margin against Russia. Indian Women lost to Russia 1-2 in the
final match and are now placed on the 12th spot.

Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was rested today and instead Krishnan Sasikiran led the Indian Team comprising of Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda.

Playing with with black Sasikiran replied with e5 to his opponents e4 move and later the game was fought on the Ruy Lopez pattern. In a long and tiring game Sasikiran came out with a good technical game and when he played his pawn to g5 against Niccolo Ronchetti of Italy the Italian did not have any chance left to salvage the game and therefore after 56 moves he resigned when there was no hope.

Pentala Harikrishna , who gave India the maximum 8 points from his
12 games on the conclusion of the Olympiad, played a superb game in the last round against FIDE Master Daniele Vocaturo and won the game in just 29 moves with his white pieces. Harikrishna played attacking moves from the very start and with his Rh8 move forced his opponent king in a checkmate position and became the first Indian player to win the final round.

In an exclusive Interview Harikrishna said” The Opposition we played was not so great and definitely the team did not play atleast according to the standard of the players. We infact played very badly this time . Even the standard of our games were not so good”

However Surya Sekhar Ganguly again lost his game against a lowly rated Italian Sabino Brunello while Sandipan Chanda had a marathon game with Denis Rombaldoni but the Italian player kept his cool and finally was able to survive by drawing the game after 102 moves. Italy B lost to India 1.5-2 and India finished on 30th place with 28.5 points from a maximum possible 52 points.

“ I will not blame the players for this poor performance and hold my self responsible for this failure. However I feel that we should bring our best Six players and that the coach should be allowed to take atleaset one player of his own choice “ Indian Coach Grandmaster Elizbar Ubilava told Vijay Kumar in an exclusive interview

On the women’s Front Koneru Humpy and and Harika Dronavalli drew
their games against a strong Russian Team of Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tatiana Kosintseva while her Sister Nadezhda Kosintseva blanked Swati Ghate on the third board.

The Individual Gold in the Women’s Section went to Luxembourg”s WIM
Fiona Antoni who secured a record winning points from the Olympiad.

Men’s Standing
ARM 36 GOLD
CHN 34 SILVER
USA 33 BRONZE
ISR 33
HUN 32.5
BUL 32
RUS 32
FRA 32
NTH 32
UKR 32

Final Standing : Women
UKR 29.5 Gold
RUS 28 Silver
CHN 27.5 Bronze
USA 24.5
HUN 24.5
Geo 24.5
NED 24.5
ARM 24
SLO 24
CZE 24
GER 23.5
IND 23.