Anand is making all the difference

The new-look Indian men’s team is creating a flutter at the 36th Chess Olympiad, and the man who is making all the difference is Viswan...

The new-look Indian men’s team is creating a flutter at the 36th Chess Olympiad, and the man who is making all the difference is Viswanathan Anand, who is participating in the Olympiad after 12 years.

Although Anand had been persistently pursued to take part in the previous Olympiads, it was always a polite ‘no’ from the stalwart who maintained he did not quite agree with the format of the event. But the presence of a strong team to back him also seems to have forced Anand to have a change of mind. The team at Mallorca is one of the best India could

have ever boasted of. With the likes of Krishnan Sasikiran, P Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte and Sandipan Chanda to back him, Anand is on a roll at Gran Casino.

“It is great to have him around, you know when your top board is secured, you can try for something on other boards,” says Harikrishna, who feels Anand has given the much needed boost to the team by playing here.

THE SITUATION AFTER ROUND SIX

Men’s standings
1. Ukraine
2. Russia
3. Bulgaria & India
4. Israel

Story continues below this ad

Women’s standings
1. China
2. France
3. Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, Bulgaria & Armenia

• The Indian men and Chinese women are the only teams to have won all their matches so far. The Indian men are in third place on the basis of cumulative points

India in Round 7

Men: Vs Ukraine (Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentala Harikrishna & Abhijit Kunte vs Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov & Sergey Karjakin)
Women: Vs Ukraine (Koneru Humpy, Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi & Dronavalli Harika vs Zsuzsa Polgar, Irina Krush & Anna Zatonskih)