By IANS
Macau (China) : Krishnan Sasikiran won his third gold medal, as he added the Blitz men’s title to the Rapid and Team Rapid gold medals he had won earlier in the second Asian Indoor Games as India added two more gold medals from chess Friday.
While Sasikiran wiped out Kazhakstan’s Murtas Kazgaleyev 3-0 and ended the four-game final one game early, Koneru Humpy, made up for the disappointment of missing out in Rapid by winning the Blitz women’s title, albeit in the sudden death after she won twice and lost twice to the China-born Qatari star, Zhu Chen in the final.
The 27-year-old Chennai-based Sasikiran was in scintillating form and became the most decorated Indian star at these Games with three gold medals.
“It’s a great feeling to do well. I was disappointed when I could not win in Doha. But here also we should have done better in Classical,” said Sasikiran.
India won all three gold medals in Rapid, but managed just one silver medal and one bronze in Classical. In Blitz India has won two gold medals and a third will be played for Team event Saturday.
Humpy, double gold medallist in Doha Asian Games, disappointed by not making even the semi-final in Rapid or Classical. But this time she was in blazing form.
She stayed unbeaten till the final, where against Zhu Chen she won the first game, but lost the second. She again went ahead in third only to lose the fourth. All games were won by players playing with black. In sudden death, Humpy proved one better and walked away with the gold.
Earlier in the day, three of the four semi-finals ended earlier than expected. While Murtas KazgGaleyev of Kazhakstan beat Bu Xianghi 3-0, Krishnan Sasikiran beat Elshan Moradiabadi of Iran 2.5-1.5.
In women’s section, Humpy beat Pham Nich Ngoc of Vietnam 3-0 and Zhu Chen, the China-born Qatari player, scored an identical verdict over Irine Kharisma Sukandar of Indonesia.
Sasikiran, whose classical rating is 2661, began with a win over Elshan Moradiabadi (Iran) in the first game, while in the other semi-final, Murtas KazgGaleyev (Kaz) shocked top seed Bu Xianghi of CHina. While Kazgaleyev all but closed the match with a second successive win in second game, Moradiabadi hit back at Sasi with a win to tie the match.
Into the third game, Sasi went into lead again with a win to be 2-1 up with one game to go against Moradiabadi. Meanwhile KazgGaleyev piled on more misery for Bu with a third win and rendering the fourth game useless. It was ultimately not played. Sasi played a draw with Moradiabadi to go through 2.5-1.5.
In the women’s section, Humpy started with an emphatic win over Pham Bich Ngoc of Vietnam with white pieces, while Zhu Chen beat Irine Kharisma Sukandar with black pieces.
Even with colours reversed Humpy and Zhen scored over their rivals to make 2-0 in their favour. The third games saw Humpy make it 3-0 over Pham and Zhen did the same to Irine to finish the match with one game to spare.
Earlier in their round robin matches Sasikiran had five wins, three draws and one loss to Nguyen Ngoc Truen Son of Vietnam, who however failed to make the semi-finals.
Among women, Humpy won seven games and drew two for an unbeaten record.