China wraps up in India

India and China will face off in a Scheveningen Match on four boards at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad from March 1-10.

Round Seven

Video from Vijay Kumar

by Arvin Aaron

India drew their seventh round encounter against China, keeping their chances alive in the India – China Chess Summit 2015, organized by Telangana State Chess Association, on behalf of All India Chess Fedreation at Marriott Hotel, Hyderabad. To strike the winner's purse of six lakh rupees, all four Indians have to win the final round games, which is highly difficult.

Sethuraman continued his fine form by beating the top Chinese Ding Liren in 23 moves. Sethu adopted the Grunfeld defense with black pieces and was gifted with a bad move by Ding with Nd4?!. A quick castle on the opposite side allowed Sethu to seize the initiative. Unable to find a good plan, Ding faltered once again, lost a knight on the 22nd move and resigned a move later. For Indian followers, the game was a big hope to win the match with Sethuraman being the top scorer on 5.0/7.

The above win was short lived, when Sasikiran once again threw away his advantageous position against, this time against Wei Yi. Sasi’s 3.f3 against Wei’s Grunfeld must have been a result of the preparation with Anand against Carlsen in the World Championship. Sasi enjoying a favourable position by the 22nd move, but he played out a wrong sequence of exchanges along the d-file. Wei uncorked a beauty in 26...Nc3, choosing to enter the endgame with a passer pawn and Knight against Sasi’s rook. Unhappy by the sudden twist, Sasi was unable to defend perfectly and resigned the game in 40 moves when Wei’s e2 pawn was threatening to be promoted.

Sasikirian was a big disappointment in the Indian squad

With each team winning a game, the remaining 2 games of Zhou vs Lalith and Adhiban vs Chen vs were expected to bring some hopes for Indian team. To their dismay, Adhiban could’nt extract much from the White side of the Sicilian Kan. Adhiban's kingside attack was well thwarted by Chen who won a bishop by the 37th move. Adhiban's extra pawns for the piece did not hold much longer and was involved in an unpleasant task of defending R+B vs R endgame. Chen tested Adhiban’s nerves and played up to 88th move and a stalemate appeared.

Adhiban Baskaran just did not seem in shape this tournament

Two of India's players had a phenomenal performance, one of them was Lalith Babu

Meanwhile Lalith Babu settled for a draw against Zhou in 47 moves from a Rubinstein variation of the Nimzo Indian defense. Zhou went for an unsound sacrificial line handing over the initiative to Lalith who enjoyed two minor pieces against his opponent's rook. A weak continuation by Lalith by choosing Nd7 instead of Qf6 put the brakes on. Zhou's pieces coordinated well in the endgame, just enough to make a draw.

Round Eight

Video from Vijay Kumar

by Arvin Aaron

China won the India – China Chess Summit 2015 comfortably by beating India in the final round. They collected 18 game points and 11 match points, compared to that of 14 and 5 respectively by India, to win the Komati Reddy Prateek Reddy trophy. The Chinese team collected six lakhs rupees (~9000 euros) for their stupendous efforts and the Indian team received four lakhs rupees (~600 euros) for their runner up spot.

Lalith Babu beat the resilient Zhou from the white side of Queen's Indian defense in 32 moves. Zhou Jianchao, annoyed by the passer c pawn of Lalith, erred and lost a pawn. Zhou resigned when the forced exchanges seem to be fatal.

Like yesterday, the above win was short lived when Adhiban lost to the unassuming IM Chen Wang. The Closed Sicilian adopted by Chen restricted Adhiban from any combinative play. Chen penetrated with his rook along the 6th rank exposing the black king. A couple of inaccurate moves by Adhiban was sufficient to bring down the curtains in 44 moves, thus bringing the match to 1-1. Adhiban just scored half a point from the last two rounds and only scored 2.5 points from 8 games. Chen's score of 4.5 out 8 is far better considering his rating.

The four knights game between Wei Yi and Sasikiran was the third game to finish. A safer approach by Wei disallowed Sasi to unleash any tactics despite his Queen and knight being closer to White King. An attack on the f7 square by Wei forced Sasikiran to take a draw by repetition in 44 moves. Sasikiran ended up the event with no wins, scoring 4 draws and 4 losses, a lackluster performance from a player of his calibre. Much was expected in scoring terms from Wei Yi, who holds an impressive Elo rating of 2706.

Wei Yi didn't impress, but he held on to his 2700 rating

With the match still tied by 1.5 points each, the onus was on Sethuraman to bring some consolation to the home team. The Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez chosen by Ding Liren allowed less space to maneuver on both sides. At the end of the first time control Sethu missed a tactical shot on the 36th move to get the better of Ding. A rook sacrifice on the g6 square coupled with another piece would have exposed black king enough. An uncompromising attitude by both was a treat to the spectators, with Sethu going for the kill and Ding standing tall in defense. Sethu went for an unsound pawn sacrifice on the 62nd move, instead of going for piece exchange which would have ended in a draw. Ding went up by two pawns in the rook endgame and Sethuraman threw in the towel at the 74th move. Sethuraman was impressive in his 5/8 and Ding had the same score for China.

Zhou Jianchao was China's wors scorer... with 50%!

Sri. Narasimha Reddy, Vice President, All India Chess Federation was the chief guest for the closing ceremony in the presence of Sri. K. Chandrasekara Reddy, Secretary, AP. Billiards & Snooker Association.

The winners with their prize

A great effort from both teams

Photos and info from the official website

Replay Round seven and eight

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Links Official tournament site The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.