Chess

Indian men went down to Azerbaijan 1-3 in the second round of the World Team Chess Championship.

For India, while two white games ended in draws as Krishnan Sasikiran and Parimarjan Negi held their fort, Asian champion P Harikrishna and Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered reversals to give Azerbaijan two match points.

Harikrishna was beaten by Teinour Radjabov. Playing straight chess, Radjabov avoided deep theoretical lines and reached the middle game .
Harikrishna went wrong by going for a reflexive looking structure that gave Radjabov time to launch a king side attack. As the game progressed, the Azerbaijani scoredthe point with a simple tactical stroke.

Ganguly could not find his rhythm for the second day in running. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played a less topical line in the Nimzo Indian defense as white and sacrificed a pawn on the queen side for counter attack on the other flank.

Following an erroneous plan, Ganguly's king came under firing line and Mamedyarov wrapped the issue in a mere 27 moves.

After an equalising victory against Almasi in the opener, Sasikiran drew with Vugar Gashimov while Parimarjan Negi split points with Gadir Guseinov on the fourth board.

The Azerbaijanis' also avenged their last loss against the same team in the previous edition of the event at Turkey.

Meanwhile, holders Russia beat Hungary 3-1 to jump into sole lead with four points.

Zoltan Almasi and Judit Polgar were the two Hungarians on the receiving end as the Russian duo of Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi caused the damage.

In what turned out to be the surprise of the day, hosts China spoilt the Ukrainian party when youngster Ding Liren came up with an inspiring performance to beat Alexander Areshchenko.

Liren's game was the only decisive result in the match as the other three matches ended in draws giving China a superb 2.5-1.5 victory against the Chess Olympiad champions.

In other matches of the day, Israel scored an expected victory over Egypt 3-1, while USA held Armenia to a 2-2 draw.

With seven rounds still to come in this ten-team round-robin event, Armenia, Azerbaijan and China share the second spot on three points each, while Ukraine and Israel follow them with a full point behind.

The Indians are currently placed joint sixth along with USA and Hungary while lowest ranked Egypt, who are yet to open their account, are at the bottom of the table.