Indo-China chess summit: Fine comeback by China

China staged a fine comeback to record a 2.5-1.5 win over India in the fourth round of the Indo-China chess summit 2015 here on Thursday.

Both the teams are tied with four match-points and eight game points each at the end of the fourth round.

S.P. Sethuraman, the former under-16 World champion, provided the lone cheer for the Indian team, while GM Ding Liren and IM Wang Chen notched up creditable wins for the Chinese team.

GM M.R. Lalith Babu, who recorded two consecutive wins in the earlier rounds, suffered a defeat at the hands of GM Ding Liren on the white side of Semi Slav Defence. After 35 moves, Lalith Babu had no option but to resign which also meant sweet revenge for Ding Liren after losing to the same opponent on Wednesday.

GM Wei Yi of China and GM S. Adhiban were locked in a 48-move draw.

The biggest shock for India was when the captain GM K. Sasikiran lost to IM Cheng Wang in the Closed Sicilian Variation.

With China already winning the match with two wins, the focus of the game between Sethuraman and Zhou was on game-points. In a Caro-Kann Defence, Sethuraman won a rook for his knight on the 30th move but soon made a mistake on the 36th move by opting for an exchange which allowed the opponent to come back strongly with counter-play.

However, Sethuraman kept his cool by sacrificing the queen knight pawn, a ploy to which Zhou fell. In the opposite colour bishop ending, Sethu’s pawns were better placed, when Zhou’s flag fell to signal defeat.

The results: Fourth round: China bt India 2.5-1.5 (Wei Yi drew with B. Adhiban; Zhou Jianchao lost to S.P. Sethuraman; Wang Chen bt Krishnan Sasikiran; Ding Liren bt M.R. Lalith Babu).