Humpy beat Mamedjarova in 43 moves

Mallorca: Koneru Humpy and S. Vijayalakshmi guided India to an emphatic 2.5-0.5 victory over Azerbaijan in the 12th round of the women?s section of the 36th Chess Olympiad on Wednesday.

Both the victories were a class act as the two Indians had little trouble in getting past their opponents, while Nisha Mohota drew on the third board to complete the triumph.

However, it seems that even this big victory will not bring the eves any nearer to a medal finish as Georgia defeated China 2-1 and Russia swept past Slovenia 3-0.

With just two rounds to go, the Chinese still maintain the sole lead on 27 points and are followed by Georgia and the US on 24. Russia and France are in fourth place on 23.5, while India are sixth on 23.

India play China next and only a big result against the defending champions can bring them into medal contention.

Humpy proved superior against Zeinab Mamedjarova who played the black side of an irregular queen pawn game. The Indian made it a point to keep as many pieces on board to have maximum chances and was just rewarded when the Azerbaijani went wrong in her calculations. As a result, Humpy got a dangerous passed pawn on the queenside and settled matters decisively in her favour in 43 moves.

Earlier, Vijayalakshmi accounted for Firuza Velikhanli. Playing white, Vijayalakshmi dominated her opponent. She was almost near checkmate when her opponent resigned after 47 moves.

Nisha Mohota drew with black quickly. After just 26 moves of an Alekhine Defence game, Meihriban Shukurova realised there was not much left in the position for her to fight.

Indian men faced yet another reverse in their medal quest when they succumbed to a 1.5-2.5 against third seeds Israel in the 12th round.

The Indian team, which had trounced Canada 3.5-0.5 in the earlier round to keep alive its hopes of finishing on the podium, failed to impress against Israel as three of the four members opted for quick draws, while P. Harikrishna went down to Boris Avrukh.

Viswanathan Anand drew quickly with Boris Gelfand on board one and Krishnan Sasikran and Surya Sekhar Ganguly followed suit with Emil Sutovsky and Michael Roiz, respectively.

Ukraine made another stride towards what would be their maiden Olympiad triumph and defeated Poland 2.5-1.5. Israel are in sole fourth place with 30.5 points, while Cuba beat Slovenia 4-0 to move to fifth. The US are next in line on 29.5, while India were pushed to joint seventh spot along with Georgia. (PTI)