Indian juniors victorious against Armenians in the opener, second match is equal
by Chessdom
The Indian junior team defeated Armenia 2.5-1.5 in the first match of the India-Armenia Friendship chess match that got underway here at Russian Center For Science and Culture.
World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta and B Adhiban turned out to be the winner amongst Indians defeating 2006 world junior champion Zaven Andriasian and Samvel Ter Sahakyan respectively on the top and fourth board while Grandmaster S Arun Prasad played out a draw with GM Hrant Melkumyan to ensure an Indian victory after G Rohti was outdone by GM Avetik Grigoryan on the third board.
WIth this victory the Indians, slightly inferior in terms of average ratings, got a 1-0 lead in the three match contest.
Former world junior champion Zaven Andriasian scored a vital full point against reigning world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta while Samvel Ter Sahakyan turned the tables on Deep Sengupta to help Armenia draw the second match 2-2 in the Indo-Armenia friendship chess match now underway here at the Russian center for Science and Culture.
Having won the first game of the match by a 2.5-1.5 margin, the Indians maintained a 1 point lead in the three match series and the Armenians will be under tremendous pressure to score the equalizer in the final match on Tuesday.
Details below.
Team India: GM Abhijit Gupta (2580), IM Arun Prasad (2530), IM G.Rohit (2457), IM B Adhiban (2439), IM Deep Sen Gupta (2441)
Team Armenia: GM Avetik Grigoryan (2513), GM Zaven Adriasian (2561), IM Hrant Melkumyan (2541), FMTer-Sahakyan Samvel (2495)
The match will be played on 4 Boards like the Chess Olympiad. There will be three such matches. At the end of each day, the winning team will get 2 points, losing team zero points and in case of draw 1 point each. Timing will be 90 minutes of entire game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from first move.
His Excellency the Ambassador of Armenia Dr. Ashot Kocharian inaugurates the INDIA – ARMENIA test match by lighting the ceremonial lamp on 30th Nov 2008 at New Delhi. Also seen in the picture are Mr.D V Sundar Hon Sec All India Chess Federation (second from right) , Mr. Bharat Singh Treasurer All India Chess Federation ( First from left) and Grand Master Luptian of Armenia (third from left)
India - Armenia match 1
Displaying the form he possessed in his world junior triumph, Abhijeet was in his elements as he bruised and squeezed the defenses of Andriasian on the top board in a Sicilian defense game.
The Armenian was at sea once Abhijeet got his attack rolling on the queen side against white's king and even though Andriasian sacrificed an exchange the Indian was simply remourseless. The dye was cast on the 29th move when Abhijeet initiated the final assault and nine moves later India scored first victory in the match.
Adhiban played true to his attacking style in a Sicilian Scheveningen defense game where Sahakyan was outdone in the middle game. Taking a cue from an earlier played game, Adhiban went for a less played system on the 17th move and Sahakyan took a lot of time to determine his course of action.
The shocker from Adhiban came on move 25th when he simply sacrificed a rook to rip open black's king side. Sahakyan had little chances after that as white slowly built on his attack and the material deficit was of little consequence. The game lasted just 34 moves.
While the Indians went 2-0 at this stage with two more games to come, Grigoryan was quite relentless against G Rohit who missed a tactical finesse in a queens Indian defense game and was tamed in quick time thereafter.
Meanwhile on the second board, Arun Prasad had an equal position as white, also arising out of a queen's Indian and he had little difficulty in securing the necessary half point for an Indian victory.
India - Armenia match 2
B Adhiban's heroics for the second day running spelled good omen for India as the reigning under-16 world champion made short work of GM Avetik Grigoryan and gave the Indians an early lead.
However, a rare oversight by Abhijeet cost him dearly after he missed a simple tactic from an easily draw-able position while Deep Sengupta also lost from a position of strength to hand Armenians a 2-1 lead. At this point GM Arun Prasad was already in control and completed the formalities of converting a full point from a won position against Hrant Melkumyan on the second board.
Andriasian was lucky to score from a Slav defense game even though his position commanded respect once the game entered the middle game stage. Abbhijeet, in trying to go for wild complexities, missed out black's counter play in the process and his oversight did not help the cause in any ways. The game was over when Andriasian forced checkmate.
Earlier in the day Adhiban showed the way in his white-piece victory over Grigoryan. It was a Ruy Lopez by the Armenian that gave Adhiban a lasting advantage in the middle game as Grigoryan was apparently not well versed with the system. Adhiban cashed in on his chances and sacrificed a rook in the middle game to rip open black's king side and he was cruising home after Grigoryan failed to spot the right defense. The game lasted just 31 moves.
Deep Sengupta got a fine position after a positional exchange sacrifice against Sahakyan but could not keep his position together. Sahakyan waited patiently and Deep's strategy of exchanging pieces did not work well. For the records it was a French where Deep played black.
Arun remained composed when under pressure and delivered the goods when the opportunity arose against Melkumyan. The Semi Slav defense by Arun as black led to some initial problems but the Indian knitted his position well until Melkumyan went for an illusive attack with a rook sacrifice. Finding the right defense, Arun capitalized on his material advantage to score the equalizer for India.
