World Chess Championship: India women lose to Russia

After two straight wins, India went down 1-3 to a formidable Russian team in a fourth Pool A match in the FIDE World Women's Team Chess Championship, in Sitges, Spain.

India, who have qualified for the quarter-finals, will face France in the fifth and final preliminary match later on Wednesday.

Harika Dronavalli, the top Indian player, held Aleksandra Goryachkina to a draw as did Mary Ann Gomes against Polina Shuvalova but Tania Sachdev and Vaishali Rameshbabu suffered defeats as the team lost to Russia in the fourth round late on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Indian women had beaten a strong Armenia 2.5-1.5 in the third round.

Tania and Bhakti Kulkarni notched up the important wins to set up the victory over Armenia.

Harika had settled for a draw against Elina Danielian while the talented, young Vaishali lost to Lilit Mkrtchian.

India and Armenia have 5 points each after four rounds behind Russia (8), with teams getting two points for winning a match and one for a draw.

In the India-Russia encounter, the higher rated Katernya Lagno and Alexandra Kosteniuk put it across Tania and Vaishali to assert the Russian team's superiority.

After drawing 2-2 with Azerbaijan in the opener, India had beaten Spain 2.5-1.5 in round two.