China on Tuesday regained sole lead with a 3.5-0.5 demolition of defending champions Uzbekistan in the men's section in the eighth and penultimate round of the Asian Team Chess Championship being held in Jodhpur.

One-and-a-half point behind them is India 'A' while Vietnam with 16 points is a distant third.

The hopes of the India 'A' men suffered a jolt when they lost 1.5-2.5 to formidable Kazakhstan to slip to joint second position.

India 'C' came up with another excellent performance beating Kyrgyzstan 3-1.

The two Indian teams follow China on 20 points each.

In the last round matches on Wednesday, China (leading with 21 points) play Malaysia and except for a rank bad performance are certain of bagging the gold medal.

The 'A' team meets Turkmenistan while the 'C' team will have to battle it out against Iran.

Statistically speaking, both have an excellent chance of winning silver but Kazakhstan is right on their toes just a half point behind and is facing a lowly rated opponent Sri Lanka in the final round. A 4-0 victory might just propel them over the two Indian teams.

India 'B' failed to get the maximum against Sri Lanka scoring an unconvincing 2.5-1.5 win. Though the only team to have beaten China, its medal chances seem nonexistent despite a bye in the final round.

In the women's section, the Chinese continued their roller-coaster ride to the top and humbled Bangladesh 3-0 to take their tally to 18.5 points.

In last round action, China plays Turkmenistan, which has garnered just 8 points so far while India 'A' is pitted against Kazakhstan.

Though a silver medal for India looks on the cards, the gold hope has almost evaporated.

Results (eighth round -- Men): <br>India 'A' (20) lost to Kazakhstan (19.5) 1.5-2.5;
K Sasikiran drew Darmen Sadvakasov,
S S Ganguly lost to Pavel Kotsur,
P Hari Krishna drew Peter Kostenko,
Abhijit Kunte drew B Askarov;
Uzbekistan (16) lost to China (21) 0.5-3.5;
Rustam Kasimdzhanov lost to Jiang Chuan,
Saidali Iuldachev lost to Zhang Zhong,
Safin Shukrat drew Xu Jun,
Tahir Vakhidov lost to Zhang Pengxiang;
Kyrgyzstan (11) lost to India 'C' (20) 1-3;
M Turpanov lost to Neelotpal Das,
T Imanliev drew Sriram Jha,
A Shukuraliev lost to Lanka Ravi,
Aziz Umarbekov drew Dinesh Kumar Sharma;
India 'B' (19) beat Sri Lanka (8.5) 2.5-1.5;
Koneru Humpy (19) beat G L Wijesuriya,
Pravin Thipsay beat C K D Fonseki,
R B Ramesh lost to G C Anurudha,
Tejas Bakre drew D R N K B Dehigam.