Adhiban back on track

Grandmaster and former national champion B Adhiban bounced back in style and defeated Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan in the eighth round of 13th Asian Continental Chess championship here on Friday. 

After an out-of-sort display in the previous round when he lost to Ni Hua of China, Adhiban came roaring back to form and jumped to joint second spot with just one round left in the event that is a part of the next world championship cycle.

Yu Yangyi of China emerged as the sole leader after outwitting compatriot and top seed Bu Xiangzhi in a keenly contested game. Yangyi, who is the world junior champion currently, took his tally to 6.5 points out of a possible 8.

Important and Indian results round 8 (Open, Indians unless specified): Yu Yangyi (Chn, 6.5) bt Bu Xiangzhi (Chn, 5.5); Ni Hua (Chn, 6) drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 6); Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 5) lt to B Adhiban (6); Parimarjan Negi (5.5) bt Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 5); Abhijeet Gupta (4.5) lt to A R Salem Saleh (UAE, 5.5); Deep Sengupta (4.5) lt to Wen Yang (Chn, 5.5); S P Sethuraman (5.5) bt Batchuluun Tsegmed (Mgl, 4.5); Krishnan Sasikiran (5) bt Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 4); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4.5) drew with Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie, 4.5); Vidit Gujrathi (4.5) drew with Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan (Mgl, 4.5); Al-Sayed Mohammed (Qat, 4.5) drew with G N Gopal (4.5); Vaibhav Suri (5) bt Idani Pouya (Iri, 4); Wan Yunguo (Chn, 3.5) lt to Abhijit Kunte (5); M R Lalith Babu (4.5) bt Fang Yan (Chn, 3.5); Amirreza Pourramezanali (Iri, 4.5) bt Debashis Das (3.5); M Shyam Sundar (3.5) lt to Nezad Husein Aziz (4.5); Chu Wei Chao (Chn, 4.5) bt V Vishnu Prasanna (3.5); Munkhgal Gombosuren (Mgl, 3) lt to Akshat Khamparia (4).

Women: Gong Qianyun (Chn, 5) drew with Irine Kharisma Sukandar (Ina, 7); Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri, 5.5) bt Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri, 5.5).