China’s misery of facing a three-pronged India was complete in the seventh roundof the Asian Team Chess Championship on Monday when they slumped to 1.5-2.5 defeat at the hands of the hosts’ B team at the Abhay Days Hotel.China, who had conceded draws to the Indian A and C teams earlier, slipped from lead after their first defeat in thechampionship and also their first-ever loss to Indian men in a team competition. Results (7th round) Men: China (17.5) lost to India B (16.5) 1.5-2.5; Kazakhstan (17) bt Vietnam (16) 3-1; India C (17) bt Malaysia (13.5) 2.5-1.5; Sri Lanka (7) lost to India A (18.5) 0-4; Kyrgyzstan (10) lost to Uzbekistan (15.5) 0-4; Iran (15) bt Macau (4) 4-0; Turkmenistan (14.5) bye. Women: Iran (10.5) lost to China (15.5) 1-2; Kyrgyzstan (8) lost to Vietnam (14.5) 0-3; India A (14) bt Bangladesh (8.5) 3-0; India B (13.5) bt Sri Lanka (3.5) 3-0; Malaysia (7) lost to India C (13) 0.5-2.5; Kazakhstan (11.5) bt Turkmenistan (6.5) 2.5-0.5. Lanka Ravi earns maiden GM norm Jodhpur: International Master Lanka Ravi made his maiden Grandmaster norm on Monday when he defeated Nicholas Chan of Malaysia on the third board. Ravi scored 5.5 points from seven games and met the required number of Grandmasters (three) for a 7-round norm. A senior personnel officer with ONGC, Chennai, Ravi was earlier with Neyveli Lignite Corporation when he made his International Master title. Ravi beat Nicholas Chan in 65 moves of Dutch Defence after getting into a knight versus bishop ending. The TN player captured the bishop with knight to win the point that he needed for his norm. Ravi could increase his norm to nine rounds now. For this, he requires only a draw in the next two rounds against top players. If he meets a weak player, he might require a win (one point) from the last two rounds. Eesha Karavade of India bagged her second International Women’s Master norm when she defeated Siti Zulaikha of Malaysia in the seventh round. The Pune girl had earlier earned her maiden IWM norm in the National A at Mumbai. Her first norm at Mumbai was of 10 rounds. ENS China’s agony was aggravated by India A’s 4-0 rout of Sri Lanka which helped the premier team of the hosts gain a one-point lead with two more rounds remaining. India A had 18.5 points, followed by China 17.5, India C and Kazakhstan (17 each) and India B (16.5). These results have ripped open the Asian team men’s event as practically any of these five teams is in a position to win the title depending on how it fares in the last two rounds.India B had a vice-like grip on the match against China and even threatened to record a 3-1 rout as Koneru Humpy put herself in a position to beat Ye Jiangchuan who is almost 200 FIDE rating points above her on the scale.Humpy first won a pawn in Petroff Defence and then took an exchange in a tactical melee as the Chinese had virtually given up his game. But then she made just one mistake, a rook move, that allowed Ye to come back and draw the game after regaining lost material in 35 moves.Double GM norm holder RB Ramesh and GM Pravin Thipsay were India B’s heroes against China. Pravin Thipsay played a satisfactory game in Sicilian against Zhang Zhong, kept a sacrificed pawn which he digested and then technically outplayed his rival. By simplifying the position to a King and pawn ending, he also got a second pawn which signalled the end of the game after 63 moves.RB Ramesh won heavy material in French Defence against Yu Shaoteng on the fourth board. Sandipan Chanda’s loss to Xu Jun on the third board did not prove costly. Sri Lanka did not offer any resistance to India A.When Sasikiran took rest, SS Ganguly, P Harikrishna, Dibyendu Barua and Abhijit Kunte won their games easily and one of them did not know the name of his opponent even after the game, suggesting how they treated the match. Kazakhstan made a late surge by recording a 3-1 win over Vietnam. Darmen Sadvakasov played a sharp line in the Petroff Defence to defeat Dao Thien Hai in a battle of Grandmasters and then Askarov struck on the fourth board to give Kazakhstan the much-needed lift in standings.India C had a good chance to catch up with China if they had not been restricted by Malaysia who did well to score 1.5 points. Marcus Chan defeated Sriram Jha on the second board to spoil the home team’s chances but they were still in the third position.In the women’s section, India A, India B and Vietnam registered 3-0 wins, more like a first-round clash in a Swiss league. Even though China dropped a point to Iran (Wang Yu losing to Mahini), neither the Vietnamese nor Indians could threaten them as they still ended the day one point clear of Vietnam with 15.5 points.India A and India B were in the third and fourth positions with 14 and 13.5 points respectively.
