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India win team chess gold
December 15, 2006

India won the gold medal in the team Classical chess event at the Asian Games in Doha on Thursday.

The team, comprising K Sasikiran, P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy, logged 22.5 points in the nine-round Swiss league to emerge runaway winners.

They drew 1.5-1.5 with Kazakhstan in the final round.

Sasikiran drew with Darmen Sadbakassov, Harikrishna lost to Murtas Kazhgaleyev and Humpy defeated Dana Aketayeva.

This was India's second gold medal in chess at the Games, Koneru Humpy having earlier won the individual event.

India were assured of the gold medal after beating Indonesia 2.5-0.5 on Wednesday to move way ahead of rest of the field.

"It is a good feeling to win another gold for the country. We were confident of winning the title before the competitions started, and it's great to have done it," Humpy said.

In the final game, Koneru Humpy beat Dana Akateyeva to give India a total of 1.5 points from the tie, the same as the Kazakh team.

The Chinese team took second position with a total of 17.5 points while Iran came third with 16 in the discipline, which made its maiden appearance at the Asian Games.

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