India A Men Lead, Vietnam Women Lead

Men

The fifth round may have decided the championship. India A, leaders from the start met Iran which is a point behind and the only other unbeaten team, the difference being India A had beaten the other pre tournament favourite Vietnam while Iran only drew.

(India A before the start of the essentially title winning round)

And they rose to the occasion with Negi Parimarjan, Ganguly Surya Sekhar and P Harikrishnan all winning for an emphatic victory 3.5-0.5 which all but ensured India would retain their title and comfirm their leadership position in Asian chess.

In other match ups, Bangladesh fell heavily to Vietnam 0-4, Indonesia trounced Sri Lanka 4-0 as did India B over Nepal, and it was the same story for Singapore over Yemen.


Women

Surprising Singapore met leaders Vietnam and were well beaten 0.5-3.5, Le Thanh Tu, Pham Le Thao Nguyen, and Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (see photo below) delivering the wins.

Barring a major drop in form and with a commanding two point lead, Vietnam now looks set to emerge as champions.

Indonesia took on India B which was still on a high after their win over India A yesterday and so won 0.5-3.5, while India A, even without their sick captain and team stalwart Harika Dronavalli were much too strong for Sri Lanka with an easy 4-0 rout and the kids from Nepal could not match the experienced Bangladesh team, also going down 0-4.

It was Iran's turn to get the 2-0 bye.