The Hindu : Sport : Setback for India’s medal hopes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Setback for India’s medal hopes

V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: India’s medal hopes — both in men’s and women’s sections — suffered a serious setback in the penultimate round of the Vizag Steel Asian team chess championship here on Tuesday.

Contenders India Reds predictably scored a 3-5-0.5 win over Afghanistan but clearly hinged its hopes on India Blues which was expected to draw with top-seeded China. But, as that did not happen as China recorded a convincing 0.5-3.5 win on Tuesday to boost its chances to lift the title. It faces unfancied Sri Lanka in the final round while India Reds takes on a tougher Iran.

No different

Same was the case in women’s section. China which defeated Dronavalli Harika-led India Reds, faces India Greens (minus N.L.V. Anusha and Y.G. Sriharika who left for the under-13 Nationals in Mumbai) on Wednesday in the final round while the Reds takes on Vietnam.

WGM Harika was disappointed after settling for a draw against WGM Xue Zhao in Nimzo Indian Defence. The second result on the table was when WGM Tania Sachdev lost to WGM Yang Shen in English Opening in which the Chinese got a slight advantage. The last result of Nisha Mohota losing to Qian Huang in another Nimzo Indian Defence dented the hopes of the Indian camp.

Disappointing show

Today, India Blues men’s team was disappointing especially after Neelotpal Das forced a draw against the highest-rated player Yue Wang of China.

For soon, Gogineni Rohit was outsmarted in Sicilian-Pelikan variation by the Chinese captain Xiangzhi Bu. With S. Arun Prasad losing to Hao Wang in Queen’s Gambit Declined variation and S.M. Prathamesh to Jianchao Zhou in Nimzo Indian Defence, the India Reds camp’s agony was complete.

The results: Men: Afghanistan lost to India Reds 0.5-3.5 (Farazi Khaiber lost to S.S. Ganguly; Sharify Aziz drew with Abhijit Kunte; Anit Tahah lost to G.N.Gopal; Fedaee Habibullah lost to Abhijeet Gupta).

Iran lost to Uzbekistan 1.5-2.5 (Ehsan Ghaem Maghami drew with Timur Gareev; Morteza Darban lost to Anton Filippov; Shojaat Ghane bt Saidali Iuldachev; Amin Nasri lost to Marat Dzhumaev).

India Blues lost to China 0.5-3.5 (Neelotpal Das drew with Ye Wang; G.Rohit lost to Xiangzhi Bu; S. Arun Prasad lost to Wang Hao; S.M. Prathamesh lost to Jianchao Zhou).

Sri Lanka lost to Vietnam 0-4 (Madushanka Telge Peiris Gayan lost to Son Truong Ngyuen Ngoc; M.K.A. Russell lost to Liem Quang Le; G.C. Anuruddha lost to Dung Anh Nguyen; Herath Nishendra vs Hai Thien Dao).

Women: China bt India Reds 2.5-0.5 (Xue Zhao drew with Dronavalli Harika; Huang Quian bt Nisha Mohota; ShenYang bt Tania Sachdev).

India Greens bt Sri Lanka 3-0 (Ch. Sahajasri bt S.A. Ranasinghe; Y.G. Sriharika bt A. Rajapaksha; Kanuri Tejaswi bt G.K. Herath).

India Blues drew with Uzbekistan 1.5-1.5 (Swathi Ghate bt Yulduz Hamrakulova; Soumya Swaminathan lost to O. Sabirova; Amrutha Mokal drew with Nafisa Muminova).

Iran drew with Vietnam 1.5-1.5 (Atousa Pourkashiyan bt An Thanh Nguyen Thi; Shadi Paridar drew with Kim Thien Le Kieu; Shirin Navabi lost to Tram Thi Bao Hoang).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport