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Tuesday, Jan 01, 2008
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Asian team meet from tomorrow

Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: Arrangements are in place for the smooth conduct of the 15th men and seventh women Asian Team Chess championships which will be held here from January 2 to 10.

Eight men’s and seven women’s teams will vie for laurels in a separate round robin which promises to witness keen tussles.

In the men’s section, defending champion India (Red) led by Sasikiran will try to retain the title it won in Iran on the last occasion. Other members of India (Red) are Suryasekar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, G.N. Gopal and Abhijeet Gupta.

The Indian players expect stiff opposition from China, led by Wang Yue, ranked 25th in the world who is also the topmost ranked player in the current championship with an ELO rating of 2703, expected to change in the New Year. Vietnam team is also likely to be a force to reckon with.

Neelotpal Das will lead India (Blue) and the other members of the team are Deepan Chakravarthy, G. Rohit, Arun Prasad and Suvrajit Saha.

Other participating teams in the men’s section are Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. In the women’s championship, India is fielding two teams, the first led by D. Harika with Nisha Mohota, Tania Sachdev and Arthie Ramaswamy as other members while the second string is led by Swati Ghate with Soumya Swaminathan, Amruta Mokal and Baisaki Das as members. Vietnam won the title in the last meet in Iran where Indian women ended runners-up, organising secretary of the championship K.V.V. Sarma said.

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