Chennai: Indian chess players continue to make their mark on the world stage.
On Saturday, the Indian Youth Chess team won the World Youth (Under-16) Chess Olympiad that was held in Singapore and Indonesia. The triumph is India's first team title at the world level.
India were not the top seeds but won the title after Hungary failed to beat Indonesia by a margin of 4-0. India and Hungary were the joint leaders and both won by an identical margin of 3-1 over hosts, Singapore and Indonesia, respectively.
But the India were declared the winners as they led the points table with 28 out of possible 40 for the gold, while Indonesia's Woman FIDE Master, Irine
Sukandar shocking Hungary's star player, Tamas Fodor, relegated the defending champions to runner-up position for the silver medal with 27.5 points.
India had never won any world level team medal before and finishing as the best youth team in the world augurs well for chess in the country.
The 10-round event had 34 teams.
India started well beating the US (4-0) and then overwhelmed Hungary (3.5 to 0.5) before losing to Philippines (1-3) in the seventh round.
Thereafter, the boys won the last three matches with consummate ease to win the gold medal.
In all, India won seven matches, drew two and lost one.
Chennai-lad B Adhiban became the highest scorer with 7.5 from 10 matches, followed by R Ashwath (4.5/8), S Nitin (7/10), Shyam Nikhil (5.5/7), Swayams Mishra (3.5/5).
Besides the gold medal, Adhiban had the third best result of all players in the top board. Shyam Nikhil and Mishra had second best result in the fourth board and the reserve fifth board.
Adhiban, who is seeking Grandmaster Norms, would be going to Abu Dhabi to compete in an Open Tournament, while the other team members are returning home on Sunday.
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