JOIN USRussia emerged as the sole leader with a perfect 14/14 score. The Indian girlsbenefited from D Harika’s assault against Kateryna Lahno to come out trumps. Harika defeated Lahno in a keen contest while the other girls held their own to propel India to the joint second spot with four matches still to come in the Olympiad.
Meanwhile, in the open section, the Indian men let slip a certain victory against Czech Republic to end up sharing the points with the European side.
Results (round VII): Open: Czech Republic (9) drew India (9) 2-2 (David Navara lt to K Sasikiran; Victor Laznicka drew P Hari Krishna; Zbynek Hracek bt Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Vlastimil Babula drew GN Gopal); Ukraine (13) bt Georgia (11) 2.5-1.5; Armenia (11) lt to Azerbaijan (12) 1.5-2.5; Russia ‘B’ (10) lt to Russia ‘A’ (12) 1.5-2.5; USA (11) drew Poland 2-2; Brazil (9) lt to Hun (12) 1-3; Russia (10) drew Iran 2-2; China(11) bt Turkmenistan (9) 4-0; Belarus (11) bt England (9) 3-1; Netherlands (10) drew Cuba (10) 2-2; France (11) bt Spain (9) 2.5-1.5. Women: Ukraine (10) lt to India (12) 1.5-2.5 (Kateryna Lahno lt to D Harika; Natalia Zhukova drew Tania Sachdev; Inna Gaponenko drew Eesha Karavade; Mariya Muzychuk drew Subbaraman Meenakshi); Russia ‘A’ (14) bt Hungary (11).