Doha: India have made certain of their team chess gold medal as they beat Indonesia 2.5-0.5 to move way ahead of the competition at the Asian Games.
The Indians carried their total to 21 points, while their closest rivals China were at 15.5 points after a 1.5-1.5 draw with Kazakhstan.
With one more round to go on Thursday, India can afford to even lose all three games and still win by at least 2.5 points. It was the most comprehensive display by the strongest chess country in Asia.
This will be India's second gold medal in chess. Koneru Humpy had earlier won the individual gold medal in the first week of the Asian Games. Krishnan Sasikiran returned to his winning way, outplaying Udut Adianto.
"I am not all that happy because I was not in form in the rapid chess event. We had some bad results and had to face criticism. Personally I did not play well in the rapid. I picked only towards the end. Fortunately we came back in the team event and did pretty well," Sasikaran said.
"We played as a team. There was lot of co-ordination amongst us. In team chess rounds, we played solid chess. In the classical all of us were very confident."
P Harikrishna was held to a draw by Susanto Megaranto and Koneru Humpy thrashed Irine Kharisma Sukandar to complete a fine win for India.
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