Asian Games: With big wins, Indian chess teams remain in hunt for medals

Hangzhou : The Indian men's and women's chess teams maintained their chances of winning medals in Team competitions in chess at the Asian Games with both teams placed second at the end of the eighth and penultimate round, here on Friday.

In the eighth round played on Friday at the Hangzhou Qi-Yuan (Zhili) Chess Hall, the Indian men's team defeated the Republic of Korea 3.5-0.5 and the women's team blanked Hong Kong China 4-0. Thus, the men's team trailing Iran by one Match Point -- 13 to 14 while the women's team was trailing China by two Match Points -- 13 to 15.

In the eighth round on Friday, the men's team defeated Korea 3.5-0.5 with Dommaraju Gukesh, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi winning their respective games while Pentala Harikrishna was held to a draw by Hongjin Ahn on the fourth board.

In other matches in this round, Iran defeated Phillippines 3-1, while Uzbekistan outwitted Kazakhstan 3.5-0.5 and China handed the same verdict to Kyrgyzstan.

At the end of Round 8, Iran were leading with 14 Match Points, followed by India at 13, Uzbekistan at 12 and China on 11. If all teams win their respective matches on Saturday, they will finish in this order. In case, one of them loses, then a lot of permutations and combinations come into play.

In the women's section on Saturday, India defeated Hong Kong China 4-0 with Dronavalli Harika, R Vaishali, Vantika Agrawal and B. Savitha Shri won their respective games to register a big 4-0 win for India. Among other contenders, China blanked Phillippines 4-0, Kazakhstan beat Korea 4-0 and Uzbekistan overcame Mongolia 2.5-1.5.

At the end of the eighth round, China are leading with 15 points followed by India (13), Kazakhstan 11 and Vietnam 10. In the 9th round, China take on UAE, India meet Korea, Kazakhstan take on Uzbekistan and Vietnam meet Mongolia. In case all teams in contention win their matches, China, India and Kazakhstan will claim the three medals in that order.