Nilufar yakubbaeva

Former World Champion Hou Yifan:  Former World Champion Hou Yifan turned out to be a thorn in the side of Indian women chess players, beating both Dronavalli Harika and Koneru Humpy in successive rounds as the men player too continued to struggle in the Asian Games chess competition, here on Monday.

It was a disappointing day for both Humpy and Harika as they lost one game each and drew the other and they were placed 6th and seventh respectively at the end of the fourth round, with 2.5 points each.

At the end of four rounds, Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi was the only unbeaten Indian player though he was held for two draws. He was placed third with three points from two wins and two draws as Uzbekistan's Nodribek Abdusattorov led the standings with 3.5 points from a possible four, the same as top seed Wei Yi of China. Erigaisi was sharing the third spot with four others but was placed third with a better tiebreak score.