Spain down UK to take lead

Chennai, Aug 14 – Spain moved to the top of the table with 10 match points with a narrow win over United Kingdom in the fifth round of the TATA 14th IBCA Chess Olympiad for the Blind here Tuesday.

In the crucial top table game, Spain won 2.1- 1.5 scoring in the lower boards. Spain were followed by Russia, United Kingdom and Germany at eight match points apiece. A further point behind were India ‘A’ at seven match points.

Spain took the lead at the end of the first time control with Enjuto Velasco and Clemente Llamero scoring over Hilton Stephen and John Gallagher, respectively.

Chris Ross brought one back to UK scoring over Palacios Perez Manuel in the second board. With a point down position, Colin Crouch pushed hard in a rook and minor piece ending, but settled for a draw in the end.

In the second table, Germany scored a comfortable 2.5 -1.5 victory over Serbia, while Russia beat Iran with wins on the first, third and fourth boards in double quick time.

India ‘A’ scored a hard fought 3-1 win over Romania. After four hours of play, India managed to take a 2-1 lead, thanks to wins from Kishan Gangolli and Darpan Inani.

With the match evenly poised, it was left to National Blind Champion Makwana Ashvin whoscored the crucial win over Bursuc Mihai in the last board to give India “A” two valuable match points.

In the lower board, India ‘B’ went down to Slovenia 1.5 – 2.5, further reducing their prospects in the event.

The results:

United Kingdom (8) lost to Spain (10), Germany (8) bt Serbia (6), Russia (8) bt Iran (5), Venezuela (5) lost to Ukraine (7), Romania (4) lost to India ‘A’ (7), Kazakhastan (4) playing Poland (4), Columbia (6) bt Croatia (4), Sweden (5) bt Bulgaria (4), India ‘B’ (3) lost to Slovenia (5), Slovakia (4) bt France (3), Italy (4) bt South Africa (2), The Netherlands (1) lost to Turkey (3).