India wins 3rd India-China Chess Summit

10/23/2018

India has won the prestigious India–China Chess Summit for the first time by beating China in the final round in a very comprehensive manner. India broke the winning streak of China by match points 9 - 7 and game points 15.5 - 16.5 on the final day of the summit held in Bhubaneswar.

Former (U-20) World Junior Champion Lu Shanglei launched Spanish attack and faced Smyslov System 3.....g6 of Aryan Chopra. After 17th move of black, the Indian Grand Master seemed to be in a better position. But the resourceful play by Lu Shanglei, with a good manoeuvring of his minor pieces created counterplay against the Black King and won on 42nd move.

In the second Board GM Murali Karthikeyan and XU Xiangyu, there was a theoretical battle on Petroff Defence. The Indian GM was having the upper hand after 33rd move, with his centralised King. However, as soon as GM Arvind Chithambaram won his game, Murali decided not to press further since a draw was enough to win the match against China. The game was drawn on 39th move.

On the 3rd Board, young Chinese Grand Master Bai Jinshi opted for Catalan System. However, Srinath offered stiff resistance and defended accurately, and saved a costly half point. The players agreed to draw on the 42nd move.

The game of the tournament was played by young Indian GM and former Indian Junior National Champion, Arvind Chithambaram, who launched La-Keres Attack against Sicilian Scheveningen System of GM Xu Yinglun of China. Arvind played very aggressively by storming his King side pawns and had good space advantage. Arvind's heavy pieces penetrated into his adversary camp, who scored a thumping win on 29th move.

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