Saturday, December 02, 2006  22:01 IST
DOHA: Chess made an unceremonious debut at the Asian Games with players having to deal with an unexpected power failure during their rapid games.

The clocks had to be stopped when there was no power for at least 15 to 20 minutes which defeated the whole purpose of the rapid games as it gave players time to think about their moves.

“It was really unexpected on a big platform such as Asian Games, especially when the sport was making a debut here,” Indian team manager Bharat Singh Chauhan said.

“Power went off for more that 15 minutes and clocks had to be stopped. How can it be a rapid game in this situation,” he said.

Chauhan was also critical of the arrangements during the opening ceremony, and complained about the lack of adequate facilities as the system collapsed in the heavy downpour.

“It rained so heavily yesterday and there was no cover available to us. The transport system also collapsed and we were all wet before reaching our hotel rooms at around 1 am local time.

“All our players are suffering from cold and cough. They are not in perfect shape for playing,” he said.

Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran, who is India’s leading chess player after Viswanathan Anand, drew all his games against lowly rated players like International Master Imad Hakki of Syria to score 1.5 points out of a possible three.

Second seed P Harikrishna won one and drew two games to be at two points from three rounds.

However, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, considered better than her male teammates in the rapid format, winning all her matches to collect the maximum three points.

New source :http://www.dnaindia.com/