The Hindu : Sport / Chess : India ‘A’ men regain gold

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Monday, Dec 28, 2009
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India ‘A’ men regain gold

S. Sabanayakan

KOLKATA: The Indian men’s team regained the gold medal it had won in 2005 in the Tata Steel Asian team championship on Sunday with a round to spare. The ‘A’ team brushed aside seventh-seeded Singapore 3.5-0.5 in the sixth and penultimate round to take its points tally to 12 at the Town Hall here.

Neither Vietnam nor Iran, both on nine points after the sixth round, would be able to stop India ‘A’ from winning the title. GM P. Harikrishna had no problems in defeating the lone GM Wu Shaobin of Singapore. GM Parimarjan Negi too did not exert much in getting the better of low-rated Lo Kin Mun Dominic.

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, however, was held by an unrated Tan Weiliang. Captain Sasikiran found the going tough against Fide Master Chua Zheng Yuan Terry but finally prevailed in a long drawn game.

Vietnam crushed Indonesia 4-0 to take its points to nine while Iran too outplayed Sri Lanka 4-0 to take its points tally to nine. A point behind was India ‘B’ on eight. India ‘B’ won two boards and drew the other two against eighth-ranked Yemen 3-1.

Vietnam was well poised to take the gold medal in the ladies’ section by reaching 11 points after thumping fifth-ranked Indonesia 3.5-0.5 in the sixth round. Third-seeded Vietnam needed only a draw against Nepal on Monday to ensure the gold medal.

Both the Indian teams, seeded No. 1 and 2, earned nine points each from six rounds. India ‘A’ blanked Bangladesh 4-0 and ended its campaign in this meet by drawing a bye in the last round and would get only one point.

The results (in brackets are team points): Men: India ‘A’ (12) bt Singapore (4) (P. Harikrishna bt Wu Shaobin, K. Sasikiran bt Chua Zheng Yuan Terry, Parimarjan Negi bt Lo Kin Mun Dominic, Deepan Chakkravarthy drew with Tan Weiliang); Vietnam (9) bt Indonesia (6), Iran (9) bt Sri Lanka (3), India `B’ (8) bt Yemen (2) (S. Satyapragyan bt Abdullah Sonbul, R.R. Laxman drew with Fouad Mofleh, Deep Sengupta drew with Faraj Yahya, Himanshu Sharma bt Al-Aqrabi Saleh); Nepal (1) lost to Bangladesh (6).

Women: Vietnam (11) bt Indonesia (4); Bangladesh (4) lost to India `A’ (9) (Khan Nazrana lost to D. Harika, Sultana Zakia lost to Eesha Karavade, Masuda Begum lost to Tania Sachdev, Rani Hamid lost to Kruttika Nadig); India `B’ (9) bt Sri Lanka (3) (Mary Ann Gomes bt Dinushki Premanath, Nisha Mohata bt Supeshala Thilakawardana, Padmini Rout bt Lihini Walallawita, Bhakti Kulkarni bt U.G.S.S.S. Udupitiya); Iran (7) bt Nepal (1).

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