General view of chessboard during Women's Individual Round 1
Credit: Reuters Photo
The Indian men crushed Kyrgyzstan 3.5-0.5 while the women tasted their first defeat in the fourth round of the chess competition of the Asian Games here on Monday.
While the top-seeded men's team saw their top players D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna register victories, Arjun Erigaisi could only manage a draw in his match.
Indian No.1 Gukesh got past Eldiiar Orozbaev and Gujrathi put it across Tologon Tegin Semetei on the top two boards while the experienced Harikrishna scored over Erzhan Zhakshylykov on board four.
Erigaisi (Elo 2712), who has not been at his best, was held to a draw by lower-rated Ruslan Sezdbekov (Elo 2261) on the third board.
At the end of four rounds, Iran is on top with four wins and 8 match points while India is second with 7 match points (3 wins and a draw).
The second-seeded Indian women were up against the top-seeded Chinese team and lost 1.5-2.5.
Rameshbabu Vaishali's loss to Zhongyi Tan proved crucial as the other three games ended in stalemate.
The top-ranked Indian woman Koneru Humpy held former world champion Yifan Hou while D Harika shared honours with Jiner Zhou. The game between Vantika Agarwal and Mo Zhai too ended in a draw but Tan's victory over Vaishali proved decisive.
China jumped to the top of the standings with 7 match points (3 wins and a loss) while India is equal on six match points with Kazakhstan after four rounds.