India Undefeated For Gold, China Take Silver, Iran Bronze
By Arvind Aaron

India's dream run in the Asian Games ended with a draw against Kazakhstan with Koneru Humpy scoring in the last round too to take her tally to 8/9. Krishnan Sasikiran who finished undefeated on 8/9 drew former world junior champion Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan. Pentala Harikrishna (6.5/9) lost to the rapid chess gold medal winner Murtas Kazhgaleyev in the middle board with the black pieces.

Starting as the top seed, India vanquished all important teams like China, Uzbekistan by wide margins as 3-0 and this is more than a show of strength. It was a three man scoring machine we had. Though Humpy had it easy, being far superior to her opponents, the task for Sasikiran was the biggest and he is going to be remembered for this gold medal winning show. Also his Elo should be pumping up in the next rating list.

India won by a huge difference of five points to make the 21-team event a one-sided race. This is the first time that chess was introduced in the games and that is a victory for chess in Asia and across the world. One day chess could also be played in the Olympic Games. That dream is not far away.

Indian team at Doha did an excellent job. The team had IM Manuel Aaron of Chennai as coach and Bharat Singh Chauhan of Delhi as manager. AICF President N.Srinivasan had called the Indian team on Wednesday and congratulated the team for its stupendous gold medal show.

Talking about the performance, it could not be better. The won eight matches and drew one. When the title is in the pocket with a round to spare, it is difficult to stay motivated and that explains the last round draw with Kazakhstan.

We Indians won two golds from a contest offering three. The mood should be celebration. The next games could see India completing a sweep of all three gold medals. India won the first gold through chess and perhaps the last also through chess! Should India adopt chess on a priority basis, more success can be expected from the game invented in India. D.V.Sundar the dynamic Secretary of the All India Chess Federation has asked for special recognition from the Central Government.

Final placings: 1 India 22.5/27, 2 China 17.5, 3 Iran 16.5, 4-5 Indonesia, Kazakhstan 16 each....21 teams.