Asian Team Chess Championship

India maintain lead in the Asian Team Championship, Vietnam move ahead in the Women's section
By Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua

Crucial wins on middle boards against all GM Vietnam team helped top seeds India "A" maintain their lead after four rounds in the Tata Steel Asian Team Chess Championship at Town Hall, Kolkata here today. India "A" lead with 8 match points followed by Iran and Vietnam at 7 and 5 match points respectively. In the crucial fifth round match, top seeds India "A" now takes on darkhorses Iran team tomorrow.

Grandmaster S S Ganguly gave India "A" a flying start scoring a fine Grunfeld win over Vietnam veteran GM Dao Thien Hai. Ganguly finished his game in style and snatched the full point in less than two hours. Next to finish was the bottom board drawn game between GMs Parimarjan Negi and Nguyen Anh Dung.

Coming up with a Captain's show was experienced Indian Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran who scored over GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, where the Indian had to grind out the victory after five hours of play. Harikrishna was the last to lose going down to the hardworking Kolkata Open Champ Le Quan Liem. The final score of 2.5-1.5 hardly reflects the efforts the hosts took to get the better of their Vietnam counterparts, which nevertheless was sufficient to keep their lead.

In the women's section, India "A" suffered a shock 1.5-2.5 against India "B" with top three game ending without result and WGM Kruttika Nadig going down to WFM Bhakti Kulkarni in the bottom board. National Champion Dronavalli Harika's efforts to eke out a win in the knight and pawn ending against WGM Mary Ann Gomes failed as both settled for a draw after the first time control. Vietnam increased their lead with 7 match points, two points clear of India "A", India "B" and Singapore.

GM Dao Thien Hai - GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.Rb1 a6 11.Rc1 f5 12.e5 f4 13.Bxf4 Bg4 14.Be2 Rd8 15.h3 Bxf3 16.Bxf3 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 Bxe5 18.O-O cxd4 19.Bxb7 dxc3 20.Qe2 Rd2 21.Qxa6 Qxa6 22.Bxa6 c2 23.Bc4 Kd7 24.Bb3 Rc8 25.Rfe1 Bb2 26.Kf1 Rc3 27.Ba4 Kd6 28.g3 Rf3 White Resigns.

Round 4 Results

Bo.	2	VIETNAM	Rtg	-	1	INDIA A	Rtg	1½:2½
1	GM	Le Quang Liem	2624	-	GM	Harikrishna P	2672	1 - 0
1	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	2616	-	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2664	0 - 1
1	GM	Dao Thien Hai	2524	-	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2654	0 - 1
1	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	2447	-	GM	Negi Parimarjan	2620	½ - ½
Bo.	5	INDONESIA	Rtg	-	3	IRAN	Rtg	1:03
2	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2522	-	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	2603	½ - ½
2	IM	Purnama Tirta Chandra	2417	-	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	2560	0 - 1
2	FM	Novita Anjas	2340	-	GM	Mahjoob Morteza	2510	½ - ½
2	CM	Farid Firman Syah	2249	-	IM	Toufighi Homayoon	2454	0 - 1
Bo.	9	SRILANKA	Rtg	-	6	BANGLADESH	Rtg	1:03
3		Hapuarachchi H L M	2019	-	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2545	0 - 1
3		Edirisinghe Dulan	2137	-	GM	Murshed Niaz	2409	0 - 1
3		Kalugampitiya R S	2135	-		Md Jamal Uddin	2150	1 -0
3		Wijesuriya G Luxman	2089	-	FM	Mohammed Abdul Malek	2290	0 - 1
Bo.	7	SINGAPORE	Rtg	-	4	INDIA B	Rtg	1½:2½
4	GM	Wu Shaobin	2454	-	IM	Adhiban B	2486	½ - ½
4	FM	Chua Zheng Yuan Terry	2256	-	GM	Laxman R R	2511	0 - 1
4	FM	Lo Kin Mun Dominic	2174	-	IM	Sengupta Deep	2488	½ - ½
4		Tan Weiliang	2168	-	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2469	½ - ½
Bo.	8	YEMEN	Rtg	-	10	NEPAL	Rtg	2 : 2
5		Abdullah Sonbul	0	-		Mahato Rajkishor	1994	0 - 1
5	FM	Fouad Mofleh	2199	-		Karmacharya Punya Man	2015	0 - 1
5	FM	Faraj Yahya	2280	-		Pandey Sajan	0	1 -0
5		Al-Aqrabi Saleh	2201	-		Shrestha Sujendra Prasad	2084	1 -0

Round 4 Results (Women)

Bo.	3	VIETNAM	Rtg	-	4	IRAN	Rtg	2½:1½
1	WGM	Le Thanh Tu	2344	-	WGM	Pourkashiyan Atousa	2306	0 - 1
1	WIM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	2295	-	WGM	Paridar Shadi	2242	½ - ½
1	WGM	Nguyen Thi Thanh An	2334	-	WIM	Ghader Pour Shayesteh	2187	1 -0
1	WFM	Hoang Thi Nhu Y	2150	-	WFM	Hejazipour Mitra	2176	1 -0
Bo.	1	INDIA A	Rtg	-	2	INDIA B	Rtg	1½:2½
2	IM	Harika Dronavalli	2467	-	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2384	½ - ½
2	WGM	Karavade Eesha	2413	-	WGM	Mohota Nisha	2351	½ - ½
2	IM	Tania Sachdev	2399	-	WIM	Padmini Rout	2334	½ - ½
2	WGM	Nadig Kruttika	2255	-	CM	Bhakti Kulkarni	2263	0 - 1
Bo.	7	BANGLADESH	Rtg	-	6	SINGAPORE	Rtg	0:04
3		Khan Nazrana	1985	-	WFM	Tay Li Jin Jeslin	2099	0 - 1
3		Jahanara Haque	1548	-	WFM	Liu Yang	2066	0 - 1
3	WFM	Sultana Zakia	1971	-	WFM	Chan Wei Yi Victoria	1924	0 - 1
3	WIM	Hamid Rani	2051	-		Neo Xiuwen Christabel	1798	0 - 1
Bo.	8	SRILANKA	Rtg	-	9	NEPAL	Rtg	4:00
4		Ranasinghe S D	1839	-		Khamboo Monalisa	0	1 -0
4		Premanath Dinushki	1819	-		Adhikari Asmita	0	1 -0
4	WFM	Thilakawardana Supeshala	1809	-		Ghale Tara	0	1 -0
4	WCM	Walallawita Lihini	1797	-		Jaiswal Bishekha	0	1 -0

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