Adhiban in joint lead

B. Adhiban

Grandmaster and former National champion B. Adhiban defeated compatriot G.N. Gopal after 93 moves in the third round of 13th Asian Continental chess championship here on Sunday. Adhiban shares the lead with world junior champion Yu Yangyi of China.

K. Sasikiran, who went down fighting against Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, will have some catching up to do in the championship as he is 1.5 points behind the leaders.

In the women’s championship, the Indian prospects suffered a heavy blow as International Master Tania Sachdev missed out on a winning position and lost to Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam.

Indian results (Third round): B. Adhiban (3) bt G.N. Gopal (2); Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (IRI, 3) bt K. Sasikiran (1.5); Bu Xiangzhi (CHN, 2.5) bt Deep Sengupta (1.5); Batchuluun Tsegmed (MGL, 2) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2); Debashis Das (2) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2); S.P. Sethuraman (2) drew with V. Vishnu Prasanna (2); Parimarjan Negi (2) bt Munkhgal Gombosuren (MGL, 1); Abhijeet Gupta (2) bt Asyl Abdyjapar (KGZ, 1); Akshat Khamparia (1) lost to Wei Yi (CHN, 1); Xu Yinglun (CHN, 2) bt M.R. Lalith Babu (1); Omar Noaman (UAE, 1) lost to Vaibhav Suri (2); Salim Ali Ahmed Aliyan Almashikh (OMA, 1) lost to M. Shyam Sundar (2); Abhijit Kunte (2) bt Chahrour Ibrahim (LIB, 1)

Women: Nguyen Thi Thanh An (VIE, 2.5) bt Tania Sachdev (1.5); Irine Kharisma Sukandar (INA, 2.5) bt Mary Ann Gomes (1.5); Atousa Pourkashiyan (IRI, 2.5) bt Swathi Ghate (1.5); Gong Qianyun (SIN, 2.5) bt Hoang Thi Nhu (VIE, 1.5); Natalie Fuad Kamel Jamaliah (JOR, 1) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (2); Eesha Karavade (1.5) bt Shyngys Kyzy Aijarkyn(Kgz, 1).