Led by Koneru Humpy, the country's youngest Grandmaster, India 'B' added another twist in the tale of the ongoing Asian team chess championship, stunning top seed China with a 2.5-1.5 victory in the seventh round in Jodhpur on Monday.
As a result of this brilliant onslaught and a 4-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka, the India 'A' men found themselves at the top of the table.
With two more rounds remaining, the leaders are a full point ahead of China, on 17.5 points, while the third place is held jointly by fourth seed Kazakhstan and seventh seed India 'C' on 17 points each.
The sensational victory by India 'B' took them top fifth place in the standings, on 16.5 points and put them within striking distance of a medal.
After a fantastic Sunday, it continued to pour more for the Indians in the fray. For obvious reasons, the major celebrations came through India B's tremendous triumph but adding the proverbial icing on the cake was International Master Lanka Ravi, who made his maiden Grandmaster norm after beating Malaysian Nicholas Chan.
As per FIDE regulations, the usual norms can only be obtained from a minimum of nine games but in case of team events this rule is relaxed, as many players do not get to play so many games.
Lanka, who only needed a draw for the norm, was not very happy though with the performance of his team, which beat Malaysia 2.5-1.5.
"We could have done better," said Lanka.
For India 'B' Koneru Humpy missed out on a winning chance before settling for a draw with Chinese Ye Jiang Chuan on the top board.
Vastly experienced Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay pulled off an upset victory over Zhang Zhong on the second board and on the fourth board a spirited attack by British champion R B Ramesh held him in fine stead against Yo Shaotang.
GM norm holder Sandipan Chanda was tamed by Xu Jun on the third board.
Vietnam suffered a major jolt in their quest for a medal when they lost to Kazakhstan 1-3.
In the Women's section too the Indians were impressive. Like India 'A', the 'B' team also scored a thumping 3-0 win over Sri Lanka while India 'C' defeated Malaysia 2.5-0.5.
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