India emerged as joint leaders along with Vietnam after another 3.5-0.5 triumph over Afghanistan in the sixth round of the Asian team chess championship in Isfahan, Iran.

Both India and Vietnam have 28 points apiece while Iran 'A' is on the third spot with 16 points. The fourth place is held by Turkmenistan on 9.5 points, Iran 'B' is fifth on 8 points while Afghanistan has just 2 points.

The Indian men may have clawed their way back to the lead position in this double round robin contest between six teams but certainly lost the initiative after dropping another half point against Afghanistan.

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In the previous encounter against Afghanistan too, the Indian men had dropped half a point and now they will have to bank on the encounter against Vietnam in the next round to retain chances of winning their maiden Asian team title.

Earlier in the fifth round, the Indian men had scored a 3.5-0.5 victory over Iran 'B'.

The Vietnamese, in fact, did their part better by scoring a smashing 4-0 victory over Turkmenistan in the sixth round game after earlier scoring a needful 2.5-1.5 victory over Iran 'A' in their previous outing.

The fact that Vietnam is yet to play Afghanistan and Indians are yet to tackle Turkmenistan, effectively renders Vietnam a slightly better contender for the title with just four rounds to go.

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