Asian Games: Arjun, Vidit secure wins; Humpy plays tie

Photograph: Kind Courtesy Lennart Ootes/FIDE

Indian women’s chess player Dronavalli Harika faced defeat, and Koneru Humpy played out a tie, while Arjun Kumar and Vidit Santosh won their games in the third round of women’s and men’s individual competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Monday.

Harika lost 1-0 to China’s Hou Yifan. Meanwhile, Humpy played a 0.5-0.5 with China’s Zhu Jiner.

On the other hand, Arjun defeated Vietnam’s Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen by 1-0. While Vidit clinched a win against Thiland’s Laohawirapap Prin by 1-0.

Earlier in the second round of individual chess, Vidit lost 1-0 to Kazakhstan’s Kazybelk Nogerbek, and Arjun played a 0.5-0.5 tie with Vietnam’s Le Tuan Minh.

On the other hand, Harika won by 1-0 against Singapore’s Gong Qianyun and Humpy won by 1-0 against Vietnam’s Pham Le Thao Nguyen.

In the Men’s first round, Vidit beat Bangladesh’s Rahman Mohammad Fahad by 1-0. While Arjun won against Phillippines’ Bersamina Paulo by 1-0.

In the women’s round, Humpy clinched a 1-0 win against Iran’s Alinasabalamdari Mobina. Meanwhile, Harika has beaten United arab Emirates’ Alali Rouda also by 1-0.

Chess at the Asian Games 2023 started on Sunday and the final is scheduled to take place on October 7.

The round of four of the men’s and women’s individual chess events will also take place on Monday.

Chess at the Asian Games was introduced in 2006 at the Doha Asian games and only featured in 2010 at Guangzhou. The sport returns to the quadrennial event in Hangzhou.

India have won four medals in Asian Games chess – two gold and two bronze medals. Koneru Humpy won both the gold medals at Doha 2006 in the women’s individual and mixed team events.

Asian Games 2023 Chess: 

Men: D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, P Harikrishna and R Praggnanandhaa.

Women: Koneru Humpy, D. Harika, R Vaishali, Vantika Aggarwal and Savitha Shri.