Adhiban drew with Ding Liren

To celebrate the historic bronze medal winning performance of India in the Tromso Olympiad 2014, All India Chess federation organises India – China Chess Summit 2015, supported by Telangana State Chess Association at Marriott Hotel, Hyderabad, from 2nd to 10th March. The Indian team comprises its seasoned captain K Sasikiran, two former under 16 world champions B Adhiban and SP Sethuraman and former Commonwealth champion MR Lalith Babu. The fifth member of the Olympiad team Parimarjan Negi could not make it, as he is busy with his studies in US. Chinese team has two players from their gold medal winning Olympiad team – Ding Liren and Wei Yi, both having rating above 2700, besides GM Zhou Jianchao and IM Wang Chen. The summit is played under Scheveningen system, wherein each member of one team plays with all members of the other teams. Here, they play twice with each other in successive rounds, one game with White and another with Black.

In the first round, Ding Liren defeated Adhiban to provide the winning lead to China, as the remaining games were drawn. India made a sweet revenge, inflicting a similar 2.5 – 1.5 margin defeat on China, to level the game points and match points in the end of the second round to level the score. Local lad MR Lalith Babu, a former Commonwealth champion provided the ray of hope to India, as he defeated IM Wang Chen in 59 moves of a Caro Kann defence game and all the other three games were drawn. Both teams have scored 2 match points and five game points so far and six more rounds remain to be played.

Lalith castled on the queen side on 10th move and traded the queens two moves later. The three connected pawns on the king side provided a big advantage to Lalith, compared to the isolated pawns of Wang in the end game. Wang was forced to forego his bishop and he resigned the game, when he was about to be checkmated.

GM Lalith Babu helped India to level with China after two rounds

Ling Diren, who has a rating of 2755, declined the Queen’s gambit by Adhiban and the tussle was interesting and gruelling. Adhiban managed to grab a pawn in the middle game, but had to give it back a few moves later. Ling tried for a win in a rook ending with an extra pawn, but Adhiban forced him to split the point in 70 moves.

In the Sicilian defence between Indian team captain K Sasikiran and GM Zhou Jianchao, both players castled their kings late in the game, after 17 moves. Immediately, Sasi pushed his king side pawns forward, applying pressure on Zhou’s king. Sasi sacrificed a pawn on 26th move and exchanged the queens, but Zhou parried Sasi’s double bishop advantage on 30th move. Pseudo sacrifice of bishop did not pay much dividends and Sasi had to be content with a draw in 42 moves, when both were left with a rook and pawn each.

SP Sethuraman followed the Caro Kann defence against sixteen-year-old Wei Yi, who eclipsed Carlsen’s record to be the youngest to reach 2700 elo rating. They played at a fast pace, reeling off 20 moves in the opening in just 20 minutes of total time. Sethuraman’s Nexd2 on 20th move forced Wei Yi to ponder over 48 minutes to make his next move. It seemed as if Sethu will build up an advantage, but Wei revealed his fighting prowess to level the position. Both had connected pawns on different flanks in a rook and pawns ending. Though Sethu had an extra pawn, they had to settle for a draw after well fought 49 moves for four and half hours.

Adhiban plays Wei Yi in crucial games of third and fourth rounds. In the other games, Sethuraman plays Zhou, Sasi faces Wang Chen and Lalith Babu meets Ding Liren.


Wei Yi played a nice game against Sethuraman


Results of first round

China beat India 2.5 – 1.5
Ding Liren beat Adhiban
Wei YI drew with SP sethuraman
Zhou Jianchao drew with Sasikiran
Wang Chen drew with MR Lalith Babu

Results of second round:

India beat China 2.5 – 1.5
Adhiban B. drew with Ding Liren
Sethuraman S.P. drew with Wei Yi
Sasikiran Krishnan drew with Zhou Jianchao
Lalith Babu M.R. beat Wang Chen


Zhou shared both points with Sasikiran in two games



Mr. D.V.Sundar, FIDE Vice President, is lighting the lamp in the presence of Mr. K.S.Prasad ( 2nd from left ) org. Secretary and Mr. A.Narasimha Reddy (3rd from left) Chairman, Telangana State Chess Association.


Mr. A.Dinakar Babu I.A.S., Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Sports Authority of Telangana State is making a move during the inaugural function. ​ The Chinese Coach Mr.Xu Jun is also in the picture​.