India relegated to team silver in Blitz Chess

Macau, Nov 3 - India were edged out by China in the race for the last gold medal in the chess competition at the Asian Indoor Games Saturday.

India, who were the favourites for the gold medal after the twin successes of Krishnan Sasikiran and Koneru Humpy in the Individual Blitz competition, were however stunned by the loss to Kazakhstan in the round robin.

India for the first time in the Games also played Tania Sachdev in women and Arun Prasad for one game in men. Prasad won the only game he played.

With seven rounds being played in the round robin, India won six including over China. But then India lost to Kazakhstan 1.5-2.5 and that proved to be costly.

Also, Sasi and Surya Sekhar Ganguly had three draws and Humpy lost two games and Tania Sachdev lost one, drew one and won two. Dronavalli Harika was also somewhat off colour as she played three games -- winning two and losing one.

With both India and China having won six matches each, the gold medal was decided by game points and India secured 19.5 compared to China's 20.5, which gave them the gold medal. Kazakhstan took the bronze medal.

India's total tally from chess was five gold medals, two silvers and one bronze. In Asian Indoor Games, India's total tally was nine gold, eight silver and nine bronze.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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