World Champion Hou Yifan: The Indian men’s and women’s chess teams remained in contention in their respective team competitions at the end of the fourth round at the Asian Games here on Monday.
The Indian men’s team, with four wins from four matches, was placed in second position with 7 match points, one behind Iran while Vietnam were placed third with 6 match points.
The women’s team with three wins and a draw was placed in joint-second position behind top-seeds China, tied on six match points with Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan have a better tiebreak score and therefore has been given the second position.
In the fourth round on Monday, the Indian men’s team defeated Kyrgyzstan 3.5-0.5 with D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna winning their respective games while Arjun Erigaisi was held to a draw by FIDE MasterSezdbekov Ruslan, who is rated 2261 as compared to 2712 of the Indian.
Iran defeated Uzbekistan 2.5-1.5 while Vietnam defeated Mongolia 3.5-0.5 to maintain their position. Host, China defeated Kazakstan 2.5-1.5 and is placed fifth with two wins, one draw and one defeat.
In the women’s section, India went down to China 1.5-2.5 and slipped to the third position.
On the first board, Koneru Humpy held former World Champion Hou Yifan to a draw while Dronavalli Harika held the Zhu Jiner on the second board. But Vaishali Rameshbabu lost to Grandmaster Tan Zhongyi and Vantika Agrawal could manage only a draw against her lower-rated opponent, Zhai Mo as the Indian team dropped points.
In the fifth round of Tuesday, the Indian men take on leaders Iran while Uzbekistan will hope to recover some lost ground against China.
In the women’s section, India will play Mongolia while top seed China meet Kazakhstan.
