Chinese players impress in Hainan Chess Open

HAIKOU, China - Chinese players continued to impress at the "Belt and Road" 2017 Hainan Chess Open on Sunday.

Zhou Jianchao beat India's Sandipan Chanda, Lu Shanglei defeated Bogdanovich of Ukraine and Xu Xiangyu triumphed over Mongolian Batchuluun.

After this round of competitions, five Chinese players, including Bai Jinshi, Wen Yang, Zhou, Lu and Xu lead the rankings of group A with five points apiece.

Sugeng Prasetyo of Indonesia defeated China's Hu Yu and remained as the sole leader with six and half points in group B.

Kicking off on Dec 17, the Hainan Chess Open will run till Dec 26, featuring some 60 players from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, the United States, Ukraine and host China. A total of 380,000 yuan (about $57,000) in prize money are up for grabs.