Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta scored a crucial win over Lou Yiping as India secured a 2-2 draw against China-2 in the sixth round of the Asian Nations Chess Cup, here.
Top rated Krishnan Sasikiran struggled for form and lost to Zhao Jianchao on the top board and the situation was looking grim for the Indians but Gupta pulled a rabbit out of the hat to defeat Yiping.
Expectedly, the second and third board games were drawn by P Harikrishna and Parimarjan Negi, giving the team a 2-2 draw from what looked like a certain defeat.
China-1 meanwhile shot to the sole lead on 11 points, defeating Iran by a 3-1 margin.
The Indian men are now in sole second spot, a full point behind while China-2 is not too far away on eight points along with Kazakhstan.
In the women’s championship the Indian eves remained on course for a podium finish defeating Iran by a 2.5-1.5 margin.
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