Chess: India thrash Uzbekistan 3-0

India further extended the lead as it inched closer towards winning a chess gold after the Grandmaster trio of K Sasikiran, Koneru Humpy and P Harikrishna overwhelmed Uzbekistan 3-0 in the sixth round of the mixed team's classical Swiss event at the Asian Games in Doha on Monday.

With this win, India have collected 16 points, 4.5 points ahead of their nearest rivals Qatar and Iran who shared joint second with 11.5 in the nine-round event.

India had 2.5 points lead over Qatar at the end of the fifth round, but now increased the lead to 4.5

points.

Grandmaster K Sasikiran began the Indian charge with a fluent victory over GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

P Harikrishna then outwitted Alekxei Barsov to make it 2-0 for India.

A confident Koneru Humpy did not let her compatriots' good work go waste as she did not give any room for maneuvering and easily got the better of Olga Sabirova in the third tie to complete a thumping 3-0 win for India.

In the earlier rounds, India had beaten Mongolia 2.5-0.5, blanked Turkmenistan 3-0, edged out Qatar 2-1 and conquered Vietnam 2.5-0.5.