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IMAGE: The Indian girls’s chess group of GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Vaishali Rameshbabu, IM Vantika Agrawal, WGM Savitha Shri Baskar, Koneru Humpy with coach N Srinath.. Pictures: Variety Courtesy Chess India/X
The Indian males’s and girls’s chess groups received silver medals on the Asian Video games in Hangzhou on Saturday after posting straightforward wins within the ninth and last spherical.
The highest-seeded males, boasting of a powerful all-Grandmaster line-up, together with teenage stars D Gukesh, the Indian No.1, and R Praggnanandhaa, completed behind Iran. India completed on 15 match factors (2 for a win, 1 for a draw), one behind the gold medallists Iran.
Two attracts — one towards Iran and the opposite versus China — proved to be the undoing for Indian males and in the end noticed them end behind the gold medal-winning Iran.
Within the ninth and last spherical, India beat the Philippines 3.5-0.5 nevertheless it was not sufficient as Iran routed South Korea 4-0 to complete on prime.
Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna defeated their respective opponents whereas Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by Paulo Bersamina.
Within the girls’s part, GM D Harika, IM R Vaishali, IM Vantika Agrawal and WGM B Savitha Shri received their video games simply to arrange a 4-0 win over South Korea to complete with 15 match factors.
A defeat to China within the fourth spherical harm the group’s probabilities as they fell behind and couldn’t get well from that time.
The highest-seeded Chinese language group received its last-round match towards the UAE with a 4-0 margin to take the gold with 17 match factors.
The Indian males completed their marketing campaign with a 3.5-0.5 win towards the Philippines.
Talking concerning the group’s efficiency, Praggnanandhaa mentioned, “It went nicely total. We have now completed with a silver (medal). It might have gone higher however contemplating the whole lot, I believe silver shouldn’t be a foul consequence. Our opponents have been fairly good, they have been all fairly sturdy groups and we felt we performed nicely however one or two video games did not fairly go our means.”
The Indian males completed their marketing campaign with a 3.5-0.5 win towards the Philippines.
Requested if the formidable Indian group had under-performed, provided that in lots of matches they out-rated their opponents on each board, the 18-year outdated GM mentioned, “It is nonetheless robust to really win these video games. Between opponents rated 2620 or one thing and over 2700, there’s not an enormous quantity of distinction.”
In regards to the elevated expectations after reaching the Chess World Cup last earlier this 12 months, he mentioned he didn’t really feel that proper now.
“I do not actually really feel that proper now. Possibly sooner or later. However for now, I am simply having fun with the sport and enjoying nicely.”
Gujrathi, on his half mentioned, “I am glad we received a silver medal. Particularly as a result of chess is mostly not within the Asian Video games, and it is occurring after 13 years, and we have been capable of carry a medal residence to our nation. So I am very proud about that.”
Coach N Srinath mentioned he was happy the group was capable of win a silver medal however felt “we might have carried out a bit higher.”
“It is combined emotions. On the one hand, it is fairly pleasing to win a silver medal, which was in no way straightforward. I assumed (a lot of) the groups are fairly underrated truly. As an example, now we have the Olympiad champions Uzbekistan who could not win this match, and completed with the bronze medal.”
He felt Gukesh’s loss to Parham Maghsoudloo within the match towards Iran made the distinction.
“I believe there have been two matches which have been fairly shut. The primary one was the match towards Iran itself. We have been 2-1 up in direction of the top. And there was this endgame between Parham towards Gukesh, which was actually near a draw. However Gukesh was underneath stress for many of that sport and it is comprehensible that Parham scored on that one.
“After which the following sport towards China, the place Gukesh was utterly higher. It was an enormous benefit proper after the opening and if we had scored that one, I believe we might have gotten the gold. So we had these probabilities, nevertheless it simply did not fall our means. These little issues took the gold away from us,” he added.
The fancied Indians (Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi among the many males and Ok Humpy and D Harika within the girls’s occasion) did not win a medal within the particular person occasion.
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