India & Vietnam inch closer to title in the Asian Team Championship, Ganguly impressive in victory
- By Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua

For the second day in a row Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly powered top seeds India "A" to a head start victory in the Tata Steel Asian Team Chess Championship at Town Hall, Kolkata. After the fifth round India "A" lead with 10 match points followed by Iran and Vietnam at 7 match points each. Further two match points behind were India "B" and Indonesia. A win in the penultimate round against Singapore will assure India "A" their Asian Team Championship title with a round to spare.

Grandmaster S S Ganguly gave India "A" their morale boosting first win against the fighting Iranians, as he overpowered Grandmaster Morteza Mahjoob after three hours of play. The Nimzo Indian game gave Ganguly comfortable position with white pieces and entering the middle game, the Indian Grandmaster showed signs of aggression going for a big push on the kingside. With a king rook shuffle the mating threat was looming large on the Iranian Grandmaster. Adding to his woes, Ganguly delivered the knock out punch with a rook sacrifice on the 27th move and wound up the game as Mahjoob resigned three moves later. Playing in the third board, Ganguly with a rating performance of 2699 has scored 4/5 and is well on his way for the individual and team Gold medal.

In the other boards, GMs Pentala Harikrishna and Parimarjan Negi scored important, hard fought victories over GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan and IM Toufighi Homayoon. India "A" Captain GM Krishnan Sasikiran drew on the second board against GM Ehsan Moradiabadi completing the Indian rout of Iran by 3.5-0.5 score.

In the women's section, leader Vietnam maintained their top spot with 9 match points, followed by India "A" and India "B" at 7 match points each. Further behind were Iran and Singapore at 5 match points, holding possible hopes of a medal.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly - GM Morteza Mahjoob

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 b5 6.e4 bxc4 7.Bxc4 Nxd5 8.Bxd5 exd5 9.Qxd5 Nc6 10.Nge2 Ba6 11.a3 Bxc3 12.Nxc3 Qb6 13.Kf2 c4 14.Kg3 O-O 15.Na4 Qa5 16.Nc5 Rfc8 17.Bd2 Qc7 18.Bf4 Qb6 19.Bd6 Rd8 20.Rac1 Bb5 21.h4 Na5 22.h5 h6 23.Rh4 Bc6 24.Qf5 Re8 25.Rc2 Ba4 26.Rd2 c3 27.Rg4 cxd2 28.Qf6 Qxd6 29.Qxd6 d1Q 30.Qf6 1-0
 

Round 5 Results

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