The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Easy for Indian men

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 23, 2005

Sport

Sport - Chess

Easy for Indian men

NEW DELHI: Indian women drew with formidable Vietnam 1.5-1.5 in the opening round of the Asian Team chess championship in Esfahan, Iran, on Wednesday night.

Asian under-16 champion Mary Ann Gomes easily defeated Luong Minh Hue on the second board to offset the loss suffered by Nisha Mohota to Nguyen Thi Thanh Ah. On the third board, Swati Ghate held last year's Asian junior girls champion Hoang Thi Bao Tram.

In the men's section, favourite India dropped half a point to Afghanistan on way to a 3.5-0.5 victory. On the third board, S. Kidambi was surprisingly held by unrated Farazi Khaiber who played black. Abhijit Kunte, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda scored over Asefi Zaheeruddeen, Fadaeyee Habibullah and Sarway Hamidullah, in that order. Indian spearhead K.

Sasikiran was rested.

In this double-round robin tournament, there are six teams in the men's section and four in the women's category. Host Iran has fielded two teams in each section.

The results (first round): Men: India bt Afghanistan 3.5-0.5; Iran 'A' bt Iran 'B' 3-1; Turkmenistan lost to Vietnam 1-3.

Women: India drew with Vietnam 1.5-1.5; Iran 'A' bt Iran 'B' 2-1.

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