Indian men crush Canada

Led by Parimarjan Negi's fine victory on the top board, the Indian men cruised to a 3.5-0.5 victory over Canada in the second round of the 41st Chess Olympiad here today.
Negi defeated Anton Kovalyov from the white side of a Sicilian Taimanov. After enjoying an opening advantage, the Indian opened up the centre for complications and benefitted when Kovalyov blundered a piece to go down.
While Krishnan Sasikiran also used his white pieces to perfection against Leonid Gerzhoy on the third board, scoring a fine attacking victory against the King's Indian defence, B Adhiban came up with a sterling effort to beat Bator Sambuev who played the white side of a Sicilian Grand Prix attack.

Grandmaster S P Sethuraman was in a spot of bother and then stood better on the second board and eventually held his forte together to get a draw and ensured India won with a massive margin.
As if taking a cue from the men, the Indian eves followed suit in a 3.5-0.5 demolition of Denmark in the women's Olympiad, which is being held simultaneously.
Grandmaster and highest rated Indian girl D Harika defeated Sandra De Blecourt on the top board, while Eesha Karavade and Mary Ann Gomes also pitched in with fine victories over Miriam Olsen and Thomine Stolberg-Rohr, respectively.

Esmat Guindy proved to be the saving grace for the Danish women as she held Tania Sachdev to a creditable draw.

The two victories in the first two rounds put the Indian men and women team among leaders in their respective sections with four points each.
The Olympiad is being played under FIDE's Swiss rules with two match points awarded for each win by a team and one in case of a draw.
The first big upset was recorded by none other than Norway '2', the second team from the hosts, who held Ukraine to a 2-2 draw. The biggest upset of the event thus far was recorded by Frode Urkedal of Norway '2' who defeated Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine on the top board.