World team chess: Indian men to meet Kazakhstan

Astana: Buoyed by a fine performance from B Adhiban, the Indian men will take on local hopefuls Kazakhstan in the sixth round of the World Teams Chess Championship underway here. In second place past the half-way stage, the team as a whole has done remarkably well despite the absence of top stars – V Anand, P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi. While Adhiban has been the mainstay scoring four points out of his five games, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and S P Sethuraman have chipped in with important victories that helped India draw level with teams like China and England. Top seeds Russia are on nine match points out of a possible ten and they are now followed by India and England with seven points each. The United States are not too far behind on six points, a point clear of defending champion China and Iran. Kazakhstan and Sweden share the seventh spot on four points each while Azerbaijan, is on three. For India, a victory against Kazakhstan will probably happen and then in the last three rounds, Azerbaijan, USA and Russia are the tougher matches left. (PTI)