Mardin, Turkey: The Indian eves failed at the first major hurdle as they went down 1-3 to Russia in the sixth round of the World Women Team Chess Championship on Sunday.
After a rocking first half that saw them win four and draw one match, the Koneru Humpy-led girls could not hold their nerves together and spoilt what could have been a drawn match.
Tania Sachdev lost on the third board from an advantageous middle game against Valentina Gunina while Soumya Swaminathan misplayed a clearly drawn endgame against Natalia Pogonina to give the Russian an easy victory.
Earlier in the day, Koneru Humpy had played out a draw with Tatiana Kosintseva while Nadezhda Kosintseva also split the points with D Harika on the second board.
China, meanwhile, continued their rampaging act and scored a 3-1 victory over Greece. World women champion Yifan Hou led from the front to give a fine victory against Yelena Dembo and Zhao Xue overpowered Ekaterini Fakhiridou to complete the rout.
In another match, Ukraine did well to hold Georgia 2-2 and that proved a good omen for the Indian girls as they remained in sole second position despite their loss. South Africa succumbed to another 0-4 loss against Armenia while Turkey went down 0.5-3.5 to Vietnam.
With just three matches to come, China seem to be running away with the title with a perfect 12/12 while India are now second, three points behind.
Georgia and Russia share the third spot with eight points apiece, while Ukraine, Armenia and Vietnam share the fifth spot with six points each. Turkey, Greece and South Africa remain far behind on four, one and zero points respectively.
The Indian eves are in a must-win situation against Greece in the next round and should that happen, they will need to score at least a draw in the last two matches to ensure a medal. There is a definite chance of winning the silver still, but gold seems out of reach with the Chinese on a roller-coaster ride.
Humpy tried but could not get much against Tatiana in an evenly-contested game, while Harika did well to keep white forces at bay in her duel against Nadezhda.
On the third board, Tania Sachdev had a fine position out of a Slav defense but used most of her allotted time to fall in extreme time pressure. Tania did not get a second chance once Valentina got her share of counter-play.
Soumya had a theoretical draw on board in the endgame after surviving many anxious moments against Natalia Pogonina. However, Soumya failed to spot her chance and the result would not have altered as Tania had already lost by then.
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