Doha:India maintained its winning ways by trouncing Iran 2.5-05 on Tuesday to take one more step towards their second gold in chess at the XVth Asian Games.
The Indians have now won each of their seven matches for a total of 18.5 points - a lead of 4.5 points lead over its nearest rival China (14 points) with two rounds to go.
Indonesia and Kazakhstan have 13 points each while Iran, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Indonesia have 12 apiece.
It is now nearly impossible for any team to overhaul India as it now need only two points from a maximum of six in last two rounds to clinch the gold.
India have already won the women's individual gold through Humpy, for whom it will be a second gold if the country wins the team title as expected.
Chess is being played at the games for the first time.
Krishnan Sasikiran's winning run was halted by a draw at the hands of Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran but that hardly affected India.
P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy made good use of their opponents' poor finishing to ride to comfortable wins.
Iran, which is coached by former world title challenger Nigel Short, could have drawn all three games, but it lost from decent positions.
Ehsan did a fine job holding Saskiran, who had won his previous six matches in the team event.
On the next board, Ehsan Moradiabadi opened fine in a Torre attack, but then lost his momentum and lost the game.
Humpy played against Atousa Pourkashiyan, but the Iranian girl ruined her finish, and from a winning she came to drawing chances and, finally, lost on time with the game turned totally upside down.
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