Chennai, Aug 8 (Agency) In a major setback, overnight sole leadersIndia-A women were stunned by fourth seed Poland 1.5-2.5 inthe Cess Olympiad tournament being held at Mamallapuramnear here on Sunday night.R Vaishali lost the only game to WIM Oliwia Kiolbasa whoincidentally scored a scorching 9/9, while the three otherboards ended in hard-fought draws.In other contests, India B trounced Switzerland 4-0, withVantika Agrawal getting her IM norm.India C also defeated Estonia 3-1 as the tournament istantalisingly poised with the race for all the three medalsstill wide open and the teams bunched closely together.
The last two rounds are crucial, and the top-seeded India-Awomen’s Team need to get their act going. In one of the crucial games, second seed Ukraine was heldto a 2-2 draw by Georgia, and hence India A women continueto lead, but are joined at the top of the leaderboard by Georgia, Poland and Kazakhstan, all having scored 15 points each.Kazakhstan routed Bulgaria 3-1. Koneru Humpy playing the black side of a QGD showed goodpreparation and equalised early in the opening against AlinaKashlinskaya. Pieces were exchanged at regular intervals andplayers decided to split points in a dry rook ending just before the first time control.Harika Dronavalli and Monika Soko fought in a Queen’s IndianDefence, with the former enjoying an advantageous positionthroughout.
Harika tried to combine her pieces together onthe King-side to launch an attack, but Monika blunted out theattack.Harika could not find the winning continuation, and a hastypawn move allowed the trade of queens and Harika’s attackfizzled out with the game ending in a draw after 41 moves. R Vaishali’s good run ended against Oliwia even as the gameappeared to be heading towards a draw for the most part ina Spanish set-up. In a slightly inferior ending, Vaishali lostway, and Oliwia exhibited good technique to pocket thepoint after 80 moves.