Medals galore for the Indian chess team at the Asian Nations Cup

The Indian chess team will be coming home from the recently finished Asian Nations Cup with a bag full of medals. Both the Women and the Men's team fared well at the tournament. The women took home three medals- Bronze in Classic, Silver in Rapid, and Gold in Blitz. On the other hand, the men bagged a silver medal in Classic. The Women's team comprised of D. Harika, R. Vaishali, Eesha Karvade, Padmini Rout, and Aakanksha Hagawane. The Men's team, on the other hand, consisted of B. Adhiban, S.P. Sethuraman, K. Sasikiran, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, and Abhijeet Gupta. The Women's team struck Gold in the Blitz event after scoring thirteen points. Their points tally ensured that they finished above Vietnam and China, who had Twelve and Nine points respectively. The Men's team, however, finished fourth in the Blitz round. In the Classic category, the Men's chess team finished with ten points, three behind table-toppers Iran Green. Their second-place finish was confirmed after they thrashed Iran White in the final round by the scoreline, 3.5-0.5. Elsewhere, the Women's team drew Iran Green, 2-2, in the final round and finished with eight points in the third position. The chess players performed well in individual events as well. From the women, Harika won the silver on the first. Eesha, Padmini, and Aakanksha won the bronze on the third, fourth, and fifth respectively. Sethuraman and Sasikiran secured the gold medal on the second and the third board respectively, while Adhiban grabbed the silver on first. Both the teams did superbly at the Asian Nations Cup and continued India's tradition of producing excellent results in chess. Chess has recently been in the limelight with a few fantastic performances by Indians. R Praggnanandhaa became the second youngest Grandmaster of the world of all time which makes him the second Indian on the top 5 list after Parimarjan Negi. Incidentally, Pragg's sister Vaishali was a part of the Indian team that participated in the Asian Nations Cup.

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