XtraTime Web Desk: Viswanathan Anand leads India to an emphatic win against Paraguay to prove that the legend still has enough to deliver to the game.
Anand bounced back from Thursday’s setback to lead India’s easy 3.5-0.5 victory over Paraguay before the women’s team posted an identical scoreline against Argentina in the fifth round of Chess Olympiad on Friday.
Though the Indian victories were expected, there were lots of surprises, too, before the event’s only rest day on Saturday.
Eleventh seed Poland, which stunned second seed Russia 2.5-1.5 on Thursday, pulled off an emphatic 3-1 surprise over seventh seed France for a share of lead with Azerbaijan, Czech Republic and Ukraine for a clean record. Of the lot, 12th seed Czech Republic humbled third seed China 3-1.
Even as top seed USA — India’s conqueror in the fourth round — was being held 2-2 by 14th seed Israel, India stayed focussed on the job in hand to score its fourth victory.
Anand shook off the reverse suffered at the hands of World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to prove his superiority against Neuris Delgado Ramirez, rated 2619. During this 26-move mismatch, Anand cornered the rival king on the queen’s side with a planned assault with the help of queen, rook and the black-squared bishop.
B. Adhiban won with black pieces following a dominating show against Antonio Almiron while K. Sasikiran sacrificed his queen for a rook and
bishop to halt his low-rated rival. All this while, P. Hari Krishna was involved in an equal battle with Guillermo Vaquez and soon decided to sign peace.