Press Trust of India
Al Ain, August 6: It was a great day for Orissa players as both Debashis Das and Padmini Rout posted impressive wins against their respective opponents in the fourth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championships here Thursday.
In the girl’s category, second seed Padmini got back to winning ways after suffering a reverse Wednesday as she checkmated Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva of Uzbekistan to stay in the joint second position with three points.
Former national champion S Vijayalakshmi continued her good run and defeated Zhang Xiaowen of China to share the top position with 3.5 points with Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran and Indonesian Aulia Medina Warda.
Another Indian Soumya Swaminathan also continued her good work in the championships and held Dinara Saduakassova of Kazakhstan. But Tania Sachdev went out of contention after her second loss in four days.
In the open section, Debashis beat his Iranian opponent Asgharzadeh M Reza to post his first vitory of the event. He now has two points in his bag.
Other Indian Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly and V Vishnu Prasanna remained on joint lead following a draw between them after a tense affair.
However, Lin Chen of China and Darini Pouria of Iran joined the two overnight leaders on 3.5 points after fine victories in the fourth round.
Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta played an easy draw with black against Wang Chen of China to inch himself up to three points along with Vidit Gujrathi, Deep Sengupta and M R Lalith Babu.
On the flip side from the Indian perspective, GM Sandipan Chanda went down to Darini.
Mahitosh advances
Mahitosh Dey won her fifth round match easily to advance to the joint second position with four points in the U-10 open category of the Asian Youth Chess Championships at Suwon, South Korea, Thursday. Mahitosh checkmated compatriot Aditya Mittal.
Vaibhav Mishra also registered an emphatic victory over In Taehwan of South Africa in a fourth round match of the U-18 open category. Despite the victory, he remained static in the joint fourth position with two points.
Saina Salonika slipped to the joint second spot after drawing her fifth round match against compatriot Mrudul Dehankar in the U-12 girls’ category. She has now 3.5 points in her kitty.
However Smaraki Mohanty’s bad form continued as she lost to compatriot R Divya Lakshmi. She is now lagging in the sixth spot with only a single point to her credit.
