INDIA-ARMENIA FRIENDSHIP CHESS MATCH

Indians beat Armenians again, win match 2-0

The Indian junior team proved their mettle again and defeated Armenia 3-1 in the third and final match of the Indo-Armenian friendship series that concluded at the Russian Center for Science and Arts.

Riding high on the success of world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta and Grandmaster S Arun Prasad, the Indian team completed an emphatic victory after the last game was drawn by Deep Sengupta. Earlier in the day, World under-16 champion B Adhiban had played a quick draw.

Overall, the Indians won 6 games, lost two and drew the reaming four. The first match had ended in a 2.5-1.5 victory for the home team while the second was drawn 2-2 with decisive results on all boards.

Arun Prasad turned out to be the mainstay for team India on the second board winning two games against Hrant Melkumyan besides the lone draw that he conceded. Adhiban had a similar score playing white in all the three games.

Abhijeet Gupta won two and lost one against 2006 World junior champion Zaven Andriasian while Deep Sengupta and G Rohit lost one game each besides the draw that Deep obtained against Samvel Ter Sahakyan in the final round.

Things turned out India’s way early in the day as all of them got positions they had expected apart from Adhiban who played it safe with white and drew quickly in a Berlin defense game.

The pressure was on remaining three Armenians as they had to win at least one game to remain in with a chance of equalising the match but as things shaped up, Arun Prasad’s precision and Abhijeet’s growing positional sense, sealed their fate.

It was an expected Slav by Andriasian and even an opening improvement did not yield him much. Abhijeet played nonchalantly to obtain a tangible advantage and when his central pawn proceeded to the 6^th rank the writing was already on the wall. Sacrificing a knight, Abhijeet made sure the end for Andriasian came quickly.

Arun Prasad played a Semi-Slav for the second day running and came good after lackluster play by Melkumyan. Getting central control Arun marched his passed pawns on the queen side to win a piece and the rest was routine technique.

Deep Sengupta had better chances with less time when he took the draw against Sahakyan but by then his result did not have any bearing on the result of the match that Indians won 2-0.

Armenian Ambassador Mr. Ashot Kocharian and All India Chess Federation Vice President Mr. Sameer Salgaocar were present during the prize giving ceremony.