India's chances of a medal went up in smoke as the team crashed to a heavy loss against Georgia in the seventh round of the World Women's Team Chess Championship in Chengdu, China.
In a shocking turn of events, three favourable positions were spoilt by the Indians on last three boards as Georgians coasted to 2.5-1.5 victory.
Reeling six points after seven rounds, the Indian women's team is out of contention now. Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika have done their best for the team but the rest cut a sorry figure.
Coming in to the most decisive match of the championship, the Indian eves had to win but the third and fourth board were again disappointing. On the top board Humpy drew quite easily as black against Bela Khotenashvili who is the top performer in the event thus far.
Harika had to win for the Indians to have any chance and the Andhra-girl tried her best only to lose heart as the game against Lela Javakhishvili petered out to a draw.
On the third board, Padmini Rout, currently the third highest ranked Indian on ELO charts, yet again fumbled with her openings and was crushed by Meri Arabidze of Georgia despite getting a drawing chance in the game.
Soumya Swaminathan could not make a decisive headway when required and drew with Melia Salome on the fourth board to complete a Georgian triumph.
With just two rounds to go, the girls are joint sixth. Georgia are well in front and close to gold with 13 points in their kitty while the Russians now look far behind on 11 points after salvaging a draw against Kazakhstan.
It was actually bad play by Kazakhstan as they missed out an golden opportunity to beat the Russians. The Kazakhs were winning on board one and lost, won on board to drew easily on board four and should have won on board three in the drawn encounter.
Results round 7: Georgia (13) beat India (6) 2.5-1.5 (Meri Arabidze drew with Koenru Humpy; D Harika drew with Lela Javakhishvili; Meri Arabidze beat Padmini Rout; Soumya Swminathan drew with Melia Salome); Russia (11) drew with Kazakhstan (6) 2-2; China (9) drew with Ukraine (8) 2-2; Armenia (7) drew with USA (3) 2-2; Egypt (0) lost to Poland (5) 1-3.
Image: India's Koneru Humpy
Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
