Saturday, Apr 26, 2014
Dubai: Chinese Grandmaster Yu Yangyi won the Open division a day after Irene Sukandar took the women’s title at the Asian Continental Chess at the Sharjah Chess Club.
Yu finished on top alone with seven points out of nine rounds. Grandmaster B Adhiban of India and GM Ni Hua of China followed with 6.5 points each for the silver and bronze medals, respectively, on tiebreaker of more number of victories. Lying on 6.5 points were GM Rustam Kasimjanov of Uzbekistan and Wen Yang of China, thereby finishing in the top five who qualify for the World Cup next year.
In the women’s division, Sukandar had earlier won the title with one round to spare. The Indonesian repeated her victory of two years ago in the same event in Vietnam. WGMs Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran and Tan Zhongyi of China followed with six points for silver and bronze medals, respectively, along with WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam.
In the final round, pacesetter Yu Yangyi used the Sicilian defence against Adhiban and played to a fighting draw in 33 moves. Kasimjanov halved the point with GM Negi Parimarjan of India in 32 moves of the latter’s Gruenfeld Defence.
Local hero GM Saleh A.R. Salem of the UAE could not make headway against GM Ni Hua’s Queen’s Gambit declined. Although a pawn up in a Rook and pawn endgame, Salem called a truce in 57 moves. Wen Yang used the English opening against GM Krishnan Sasikiran of India and sacrificed a Knight on the 28th move to threaten mate and force resignation on the next move.
GMs Salem, Chinese Bu Xiangzhi, Vietnamese Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Indians Negi and S. P. Sethuraman all finished between sixth to 10th places at six points each. Seven players follow with 5.5 points each for 11th to 17th places, namely India’s Deep Sengupta and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Chinese Wei Yi and Wang Chen and Mongolian Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan.
In the women’s division, five players tied at 5.5 points each for fifth to ninth places, namely WGM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran, WIM Gong Qianyun of Singapore, IM Karavade Eesha of India and Vietnamese IM Nguyen Thi Thanh An and IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen.
Staff Report
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