A brilliant performance by Surya Shekhar Ganguly propelled the Indian men's team to a 2.5-1.5 victory over fourth seeded Armenia in the fifth round of the 36th Chess Olympiad at Gran Casino in Mallorca, Spain.
While Ganguly's win over Gabriel Sargissen was the lone victory for the Indians in the fifth round, the other games were drawn with some very exciting fights.
On the topboard World Rapid champion Viswanathan Anand gave another display of his superior defensive skills to draw with former World Junior Champion Levon Aronian and Krishnan Sasikiran salvaged a completely lost position to hold veteran Rafael Vaganian. On the third, Harikrishna signed peace with Smbat Lputian after a struggle.
Second seed Ukraine's winning run was finally halted by third seed Israel as they settled for draws on all four boards in a balanced clash.
Despite the 2-2 result, Ukraine maintained their slender half a point lead in the event taking their tally to 16.5 points out of a possible 20.
Israel remained in sole second position on 16 points while Azerbaijan took the third spot moving to 15 points defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina by a 3-1 margin.
The Bulgarian men trounced Scotland 3.5-0.5 to occupy the fourth place on 14.5 along side top seed and defending champions Russia while India remained in joint 6th spot on 14 along with Netherlands, France, Spain 'A' and Poland.
There has been a consistent performance by the Indians after they struggled in the first round itself and could muster only 2.5 points against Uruguay.
Also, India is the only team besides Azerbaijan and France that has won all its matches so far. Nine rounds still remain in this event.
Ganguly was the star performer yet again. It was a normal Ruy Lopez where the Indian faced some optically dangerous plans by Armenian Sargissen and fell under some pressure on the clock as he had used a lot of time in the opening.
However, as it turned out in the middle game, Sargissen's plan did not really have much ammunition to back him as Ganguly easily digested an extra piece that was sacrificed.
Thereafter Ganguly emerged with a superior position but the clock prompted him to offer the draw in his 21st move as Sargissen had 25 minutes to back him with still some attacking chances.
"I am glad now that he refused the offer, perhaps he overestimated his position", said Ganguly after the game that lasted 42 moves.
"Perhaps that was my only mistake in the game", asserted Ganguly referring to the draw proposal and added that it was an excellent result by the team over one of the favourites here.
In the top board clash, Anand played the black side of a Queen's Indian that has remained faithful to him for a long time already.
Aronian was also well-armed for this all important clash as he maintained a slightly better position for the major part. Giving importance to Anand's weakened Queen side, the Armenian exerted pressure in fine fashion and forced Anand to part with a pawn.
The Indian ace got his counter play rolling in the ensuing endgame by placing his rook on the seventh rank and the tactical complications later forced Anand to part with two pieces against Aronian's rook.
The nature of the position remained within the boundaries of a draw and subsequent pawn exchanges led to a an absolutely level position. The peace was signed on the 39th move.
Sasikiran was close to losing against Vaganian but a spirited effort salvaged an important half point. Playing the white side of a Queen's Gambit, Sasikiran could only get a miniscule advantage and later pressed too hard to lose a pawn in the ending.
Vaganian was clearly on top thereafter and Sasikiran was down to his last two minutes but a wrong sequence of moves gave the Indian the chance to force the draw.
Sasikiran might have even resigned as his position was in shambles but as it turned out, after 60 hard-fought moves the draw was agreed to.
Harikrishna employed the Grunfeld defence with black pieces to get a dynamically balanced position.
Going for an early trade of Queen, the Indian sacrificed a pawn in the mid of the board for a fine rook lift that endangered white's position for some time.
However, Lputian's immense experience backed him in finding out the most resourceful defence and the game petered out to a draw after 39 moves.
Thanks to Alexander Grishchuk on the second board, Russia could win by a minimal margin against Slovakia. Grishchuk used the English attack effectively to crush Luobir Ftacknik while the remaining boards ended in draws.
In other important clashes, France and Spain 'A' recorded an identical 2.5-1.5 victory over Cuba and Georgia respectively while Poland thrashed England by a 3-1 margin.
Indian results round 5:
Levon Aronia drew with Viswanathan Anand; Krishnan Sasikiran drew with Rafael Vaganian; Smbat Lputian drew with P Harikrishna; Gabriel Sargissen lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly;
Important results for Men (Round 5):
Ukraine (16.5) drew with Israel (16) 2-2; Slovakia (13.5) lost to Russia (14.5) 1.5-2.5; Azerbaijan (15) beat Bosnia Herzegovina (12.5) 3-1; Armenia (13) lost to India (14) 1.5-2.5; France (14) beat Cuba (13) 2.5-1.5; Spain 'A' (14) beat Georgia (12.5) 2.5-1.5; Bulgaria (14.5) beat Scotland (11.5) 3.5-0.5; Poland (14) beat England (12) 3-1; Uzbekistan (13) beat United States (12) 2.5-1.5; Netherlands (14) beat Vietnam (11) 3.5-0.5; Canada (13) beat Philippines (12) 2.5-1.5; Argentina (13) beat Denmark (12) 2.5-1.5; Kazakhstan (11) lost to Serbia Montenegro (13) 1-3; Czech Republic (12.5) beat Greece (11.5) 2.5-1.5; Croatia (12) drew with Germany (12) 2-2; Chile (12) drew with Latvia (12) 2-2; Switzerland (11) lost to China (13) 1-3.
