The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Chess team completes formalities, takes gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 15, 2006
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Sport - Chess

Chess team completes formalities, takes gold

Manuel Aaron

Doha: A large crowd of local Indians thronged the venue to see the Indian team being awarded the gold medals and hear the Indian National anthem for the last time in the Doha games. China took the silver medal by beating Bangladesh 2-1 in the ninth and last round of the Team Chess Championship in the Asian Games 2006. And Iran took the bronze medal surprisingly defeating hosts Qatar 3-0.

After having won the gold medal with a round to spare, India played a 1.5-1.5 draw with Kazakhstan. This was the only draw they conceded in the championship having beaten all their opponents with scores like 3-0 and 2.5-0.5.

Harikrishna with the black pieces against Grandmaster Kazhgaleyev played the Czech Benoni and got into trouble in the middle-game. He lost his queen and soon gave up. Sasikiran had a promising position against Grandmaster Darmen Sadvakasov but could not deliver the knock-out punch. The game was drawn in an ending.

It was left to Koneru Humpy to equalise the score with a comfortable victory over Dana Aketaeva on the third board.

The final standings: 1. India 22.5; 2. China 17.5; 3. Iran 16.5; 4-5. Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Iran 16; 6. Qatar 15; 7-8. Bangladesh, Philippines 14.5; 9-10. Uzbekistan, Mongolia 14. 11-12. Turkmenistan, Syria 13.5; 13. Srilanka 13; 14-15. UAE, Jordan 12.5; 16. Vietnam 12; 17. Bahrain 11.5; 18. Palestine 11; 19. Japan 10.5; 20. Nepal 10; 21. Macau 3.

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