ASHGABAT (TURKMENISTAN): The Indian men and women’s under-23 teams collected bronze medals in rapid chess competitions at the Asian Indoor Games here on Tuesday.
Padmini Rout and Tania Sachdev reached the semifinals but failed to progress further, much like the duo of M. Karthikeyan and Diptayan Das in the men u-23 section. Since the losing teams in the semifinals were awarded bronze medals, India boosted its medal tally.
There was disappointment for India in the men’s section where the third-seeded team of Surya Shekhar Ganguly and G.N. Gopal finished a poor ninth after crashing to a 0-2 loss in the fifth and final league match against eventual runner-up China.
In the women’s u-23 category, Akanksha Hagawane and G.K. Monnisha blew away their chances of making the semifinal in the morning session by losing 0-2 to China. As a result, India finished fifth.
The standings (rapid chess):
Men: 1. Vietnam; 2. China; 3. Turkmenistan and Qatar; 9. India.
Women: 1. China; 2. Indonesia; 3. Vietnam and India.
U-23, men: 1. China; 2. Philippines; 3. India and Turkmenistan; Women: 1. Kazakshtan; 2. China; 3. Philippines and Vietnam; 5. India.
