India Off To Winning Start In Chess Team Events At Asian Games

Indian men and women opened their campaign in the chess team event at the Asian Games with easy wins over Mongolia and Philippines respectively in Hangzhou on Friday. Both the teams won by identical 3.5-0.5 margins in the first round. The team event at the Asian Games is being played in the classical time format while the individual events were held in the rapid format. While the top-seeded Indian men's team saw GM Arjun Erigaisi opening the scoring with a win over IM Amartuvshin Ganzorig of Mongolia with black pieces, Vidit S Gujrathi and R Praggnanandhaa added to the points.

(Medals Tally | Asian Games 2023 Full Schedule)

GM D Gukesh was, however, held to a draw on the top board by a lower-ranked GM Bilguun Sumiya.

Praggnanandhaa defeated Batchuluun Tsegmed while Gujrathi got past Gan-Erdene Sugar.

The second-seeded Chinese began with a 3-1 win over Philippines while a strong Uzbekistan beat Kyrgzstan by a similar scoreline.

In the women's section, R Vaishali and B Savitha Shri won their games to put India on the road to victory.

IM Vantika Agrawal then drew with Jan Jodilyn Fronda with black pieces.

D Harika then won by 3.5-0.5 margin against HM Janelle Mae Frayna.

Vaishali and Savitha Shri beat Marie Antoinette San Diego and Bernadette Galas respectively.

Meanwhile, a strong Chinese team, the top-seed, was held to a 2-2 draw by Uzbekistan, seeded seventh. 

India's Esports contingent concludes campaign at Asian Games

India's 15-member Esports contingent wrapped up its remarkable journey at the ongoing Asian Games after its DOTA 2 team exited the competition at the China Hangzhou Esports Centre.

The DOTA 2 squad led by skipper Darshan Bata (A35), and comprising Krish Gupta (Krish-), Abhishek Yadav (Abhi-), Ketan Goyal (Evil-Ash), and Shubham Goli (Madness) endured a 0-1 defeat against Kyrgyzstan in their opening group game before going down 0-1 against the Philippines in the second group stage game to bow out of the competition.

In what was Esports' debut as an official medal sport at the prestigious tournament, India had participated in four of the seven total titles namely: DOTA 2, League of Legends, EA Sports FC Online, and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.

India's League of Legends team captained by Akshaj Shenoy (Kai), and comprising Samarth Arvind Trivedi (CrankO), Mihir Ranjan (Lotus), Sanindhya Malik (Deadcorp), Aakash Shandilya (Infi), Aditya Selvaraj (Krow) finished fifth after suffering a hard-fought 0-2 defeat against Vietnam in the quarterfinals.

The country's star EA Sports FC Online athlete, Charanjot Singh, secured the ninth place out of a total pool of 36 leading athletes from the continent in this competition.

The 20-year-old began his campaign with a 0-2 defeat to China's Liu Jiacheng in the Round of 32 but bounced back strongly with three consecutive wins against Aristorenas Jorrel of Philippines, Alrowaihi RKM of Bahrain, and Yessentayev Olzhas of Kazakhstan in the Losers Bracket Round 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

However, his campaign came to an end after enduring another 0-2 defeat against Liu Jiacheng of China in the Losers Bracket Round 4. His compatriot Karman Singh exited the competition after going down 1-2 against Aldhafiri Meshari of Kuwait in the Losers Bracket Round 2.

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