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| The
Sri Lankan women’s team, ranked 98th, continued to impress, defeating
74th seed Albania 2.5-1.5 in the 3rd Round on Saturday. This follows a
win over Costa Rica in Round 2 and a narrow loss to the much fancied Greece
team in the first round. |
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| Ishini
Wickramasinghe, although she failed to see an easy win after launching
a strong attack in the middle game, held her nerve to secure the point
in a well-played ending. Tharushi Niklesha making her first appearance,
scored a big win against a player who had a clear 400 Elo point advantage
over her. Zainab Saumy drew her game while Sachini Ranasinghe playing
on top board lost. |
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The
big surprise in the Women’s section was top seed China being held
to a draw by 19th ranked Vietnam. Russia beat Uzbekistan while the Ukraine
prevailed over 6th seed USA. Only 13 teams remain unbeaten In the Women’s
Section after the 3rd Round. |
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The top teams competing in the Olympiad fared stiff resistance from their respective opponents in Round 3 as the strength gap between teams narrowed. While most of the higher ranked teams did win their matches, there were no 4-0 sweeps as was the case in the first two rounds. |
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| The surprise
result at the top end of the draw in the Open Section was Cuba (ranked
15th) beating 7th ranked Poland 2.5-1.5. In other underdog-wins, Italy
(ranked 36th) beat 19th ranked Turkey (2.5-1.5), Israel (16th) went down
to Serbia (24th) and the strong Norwegian team led by world champ Magnus
Carlsen and ranked 12th lost to 30th seed Romania 2.5-1.5. Carlsen was
held to a draw by Constantin Lupulescu. |
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Top
ranked Russia, China and Ukraine as expected defeated Moldova, Brazil
and Germany respectively. At the end of Round 3 only 16 teams remain unbeaten.
The tournament is being held over 11 rounds in Baku, Azerbaijan. |
|
| The
Sri Lankan men’s team notched their first win against Haiti (3.5-1.5),
after a slow start to the tournament which saw them losing the first two
rounds. |
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| Malinda Seneviratne reporting from Baku |
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