Dresden: The Indian men’s team had a 3-1 victory over Austria in the fifth round of the 32nd Chess Olympiad.

The Indians, helped by victories by former world junior champion P. Harikrishna and national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly, took their points tally to eight points out of a possible 10 to be at joint seventh.

As many as six teams emerged joint leaders on nine points in the 11-round event after the clash between Germany and Russia ended in a 2-2 draw.

Peace was the order of the day on all four boards. This result enabled England, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Armenia to catch the two overnight leaders after scoring victories over Italy, Norway, Hungary and The Netherlands, respectively.

Harikrishna downed Stefan Kindermann with black piecesin 43 moves.

Surya Sekhar gave the Indians an early lead at the expense of Valery Atlas who employed the Sicilian Scheveningen as black. The Indian went for the Keres Attack and cruised home in just 34 moves.

In the women’s section the Indians, seeded 11, succumbed to a 1.5-2.5 loss to eighth seeds Hungary and slid to joint 14th spot with seven points.

World junior girls’ champion D. Harika lost her game and Nisha Mohota was also on the receiving end, losing to Vajda Szidonia on the second board. Tania Sachdev, Swati Ghate and Mary Ann Gomes played out draws against Hoang Thanh Trang, Eldiko Madl and Veronica Schneider, respectively.

China emerged sole leaders in this section after scoring a thumping 3.5-0.5 victory over Poland on the top board.

Hungary occupy the second spot on nine points while 11 teams, including top seeds Russia, share third place on eight points. (PTI)