World Women's Chess: Mary Ann stars in India win

India continued its recovery journey and downed China Two 2.5-1.5 in the seventh round of the World Women's Team Chess Championship in Ningbo on Wednesday.

Mary Ann Gomes starred in India's lone victory over China Two while the remaining three games were drawn, giving the team a much-needed victory at this stage of the championship.

Poland remained in front after settling for a 2-2 draw with Russia, sharing a victory besides draws on two boards.

The Polish women took their tally to 10 points out of a possible 14 and are now followed by China One, who cruised past Georgia by a huge 3.5-0.5 margin.

It was a spectacular display by the pre-event favourites as they conceded draw only on the top board while scoring fine victories on the remaining.

The third place is shared by Russia, Ukraine and Armenia on eight points each while India are next in the standings along side Georgia.

The United States stands joint-eighth, a full point behind India now, and alongside China Two, while Vietnam remained at the bottom of the table following another loss at the hands of Armenia.

Mary Ann Gomes displayed her positional acumen to get the better of Ding Yixin of China Two.

Playing white, Mary enjoyed better position for the major part of the game but slipped a little later. However the Chinese player could not cash in on her chances and went down in 65 moves.

"I was better from the beginning but made a mistake in the middle and the win became much more difficult than what it should have been," Mary said about the game.

Asked if they (the team) is thinking about the remaining rounds and that they still had chance to finish much better, Mary said the team was only thinking about the match against Ukraine for now which is a tough contest in the eighth round.

On the top board for India, D Harika played a draw with Tan Zhongyi while on the second board Eesha Karavade signed peace with Zhang Xiaowen. Kruttika Nadig had to work hard before she split the point with Wang Xiaohui on the fourth board.

Results round 7:

Ukraine (8) drew with America (6) 2-2 [Anna Ushenina drew with Irina Krush; Zhukova Nataliya beat Anna Zatonskykh; Inna Gaponenko lost to Goletiani Rusudan; Maria Muzychuk drew with Alisa Melekhina]

India (7) beat China Two 2.5-1.5 [Dronavalli Harika drew with Tan Zhongyi; Eesha Karavade drew with Zhang Xiaowen; Mary Ann Gomes beat Ding Yixin; Kruttika Nadig drew with Wang Xiaohui]

Armenia beat Vietnam 3.5-0.5 [Elina Danielian beat Hoang Thi Bao Tram; Lilit Mkrtchian drew with Pham Le Thao Nguyen; Lilit Galojan beat Hoang Thi Nhu Y; Aginian Nelli beat Vo Thi Kim Phung]

Russia (8) drew with Poland (10) 2-2 [Tatiana Kosintseva drew with Iweta Rajlich; Nadezhda Kosintseva drew with Jolanta Zawadzka; Ekaterina Kovalevskaya lost to Joanna Majdan; Gunina Valentina beat Katrina Szczepkowska-Horowska]

China One (9) beat Georgia (7) 3.5-0.5 [Zhao Xue drew with Maia Chiburdanidze; Shen Yang beat Nana Dzagnidze; Ju Wenjun beat Lela Javakhishvili; Huang Qian beat Maia Lomineishvili].