Asian Cup: India beats China and takes lead

by Albert Silver
5/27/2014 – It was a cataclysmic day as both men's and women's competitions saw the leaders, China and India, meet head on for a possibly decisive battle. In the women's section, the Chinese had a significant rating advantage overall, and were able to make it count as they beat India, but the men's section was another matter and India has now taken the lead after scoring a fantastic victory.

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The 2014 Asian Nations Cup is underway in Tabriz, Iran, and will run from May 20-30, 2014. It is a team event with men's and women competitions in blitz, rapid, and standard time controls. The first event is the rapid games competitions followed by the standard time controls, and finally on the last day the blitz event will be held.

Standard competition

Open - Rounds five and six

The Iranian media has been providing ample coverage

In the Open competition, China had been leading with not only an impeccable score, but had been beating strong rivals with huge scores. Consider its 3-1 victory over the Vietnamese team, fielding Quang Liem Le (2712) or the 3.5-0.5 win over Kazakhstan. However, round five was the true clash of the titans as the Chinese team played the only rival left: India.

Piece play

The first decisive turning point was the quick win by Krishnan Sasikiran over Yu Yangyi on board two.

[Event "Asian Nations Cup 2014"] [Site "Tabriz IRI"] [Date "2014.05.25"] [Round "5.2"] [White "Sasikiran, Krishnan"] [Black "Yu, Yangyi"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E12"] [WhiteElo "2669"] [BlackElo "2675"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2014.05.22"] [WhiteTeam "INDIA"] [BlackTeam "CHINA"] [WhiteTeamCountry "IND"] [BlackTeamCountry "CHN"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qb3 {An offbeat reply, with Qc2 the most common continuation.} Nc6 {Although it threatens to win a pawn with Na5, this move looks quite superficial. It blocks the c-pawn and places itself in the line of fire of White's central pawns.} 6. Qc2 Na5 {Seriously? Since White already moved the queen out of the way, and plans to push e4 anyhow, why on earth is Black wasting time on this when it doesn't actually place White under any pressure, and squanders development tempi.} 7. e4 Bb7 8. Nc3 c5 9. d5 {Now the question is how does Black solve his queenside since the knight is somehwat stuck on a5 with nowhere to retreat to. White is already considerably better.} exd5 10. exd5 Be7 11. Bd3 Ba6 12. b3 O-O 13. O-O Nb7 14. Re1 Nd6 15. Bf4 {This natural move also lays a trap.} Re8 (15... -- {White is threatening} 16. Rxe7 $1 Qxe7 17. Re1 Qd8 18. Bxd6 {winning material.}) 16. h3 Bf8 {Black wants to relieve the pressure somewhat by exchanging off pieces...} 17. Be5 { but White is having none of it.} g6 18. Re3 Nh5 19. Rae1 Ng7 20. g4 {White is probably winning already. Not only does he have more space and a clear attack, but Black's bishop and rook cannot come to the defense meaning he will be outnumbered when the showdown comes.} Bb7 21. Qd2 a6 22. a4 f5 23. Bxd6 Rxe3 24. Qxe3 Bxd6 25. Qh6 Be7 26. gxf5 Nxf5 27. Bxf5 gxf5 28. Kh1 Bf6 29. Rg1+ Kh8 30. Nh4 1-0

This put enormous pressure on the Chiense to restore the balance on other boards, but their lower-rated third and fourth boards were only able to draw, leaving their fate in Ding Liren's hands. Ding Liren (2714) was the favorite against Sethuruman, who came rated 130 Elo less, but unfortunately for him, he squandered no fewer than three clear winning continuations in the endgame, and drew by repetition.

[Event "Asian Nations Cup 2014"] [Site "Tabriz IRI"] [Date "2014.05.25"] [Round "5.2"] [White "Ding, Liren"] [Black "Sethuraman, S.P."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A20"] [WhiteElo "2714"] [BlackElo "2582"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/4k2p/6pP/3P4/4PPN1/5K2/8/7r b - - 0 68"] [PlyCount "28"] [EventDate "2014.05.22"] [WhiteTeam "CHINA"] [BlackTeam "INDIA"] [WhiteTeamCountry "CHN"] [BlackTeamCountry "IND"] 68... Rd1 69. Ke3 $4 (69. Nf2 $1 Rd2 70. Ke3 Ra2 71. e5 $1 {was winning.} Ra3+ 72. Ke2 Ra2+ 73. Kf3 Ra3+ 74. Kg4 $18) 69... Rg1 70. Ne5 Rd1 71. Kf3 ({Again White misses his chance. Had he played} 71. Nd3 $1 Rh1 72. e5 Rxh6 73. d6+ Kf7 74. Nc5 {he would have won.}) 71... Rh1 72. Kg4 Rg1+ 73. Kf3 Rh1 74. Kg2 Rh4 75. Kg3 Rh1 76. Ng4 Rg1+ 77. Kf3 Rd1 {White gets his third and last chance to close the deal and save the match.} 78. Ke3 $4 {Alas! He does not see it and repeats the position.} Rg1 79. Ne5 Rd1 80. Ke2 Rh1 81. Ng4 Rg1 82. Kf3 1/2-1/2

As a result, China lost the match 2.5-1.5 and India took the lead.

The Indians have now taken the lead after beating the hitherto leader China

In round six there were no surprises unless one includes the draw between Vietnam and Iran-A, but the leaderboard was not affected.

Standings after six rounds

Rk
SNo
Team
Gms
  + 
  = 
  - 
TB
1
2
INDIA
6
5
1
0
18.0
2
4
CHINA
6
5
0
1
20.0
3
1
VIETNAM
6
3
2
1
17.0
4
6
IRAN A
6
3
2
1
16.5
5
9
KAZAKHSTAN
6
4
0
2
15.5
6
5
IRAN B
6
2
1
3
10.5
7
8
SRI LANKA
6
2
1
3
8.5
8
7
JORDAN
6
1
1
4
5.5
9
10
IRAQ
6
1
0
5
8.0
10
3
OMAN
6
0
0
6
0.5

Women - Round four

In the Women's competition, the top teams China and India also locked horns, but in their case there were no surprises, and China came ahead with 2.5-1.5, virtually guaranteeing the gold with one round to go.


Team India was unable to duplicate the success of the men's team. Here Tania Sachdev plays.

The playing hall

Standings after four rounds

Rk
SNo
Team
Gms
 = 
TB 
1
2
CHINA
4
4
0
0
11.0
2
3
INDIA
4
3
0
1
11.0
3
4
KAZAKHSTAN
4
2
1
1
9.0
4
6
IRAN A
4
1
2
1
8.5
5
5
VIETNAM
4
0
1
3
5.0
6
1
IRAN B
4
0
0
4
3.5

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.


Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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