Yu and Sukandar win Asian Continental 2014

Yu and Sukandar Champions at Asian Continental 2014

By Sagar Shah

The Asian Continental Championships (Open and Women) were held from 17th-26th April 2014 in the city of Sharjah, UAE. This tournament not only helps to find out who the strongest players in Asia are, but also at stake are five spots from the Open section and one spot from the Women section for the World Cup 2015 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The tournament was extremely hard fought and, as we shall see further in the article, there were a lot of interesting games. But before we get immersed in the details let us congratulate the two extremely talented youngsters who were crowned as the Asian Champions.

1994 born Yu Yangyi (2667) and 1992 born Irene Sukandar Kharisma (2319)
are the Asian champions in Open and Women category respectively

Chinese GM Yu Yangyi (2667) played a fantastic tournament by scoring 7.0/9
with a rating performance of 2812 and also gaining 16 Elo points

Every time something is written about Yu, the quote veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) rings through one’s mind. This 19-year-old lad has won almost everything he sets his eyes upon! In September 2013 he won the World Junior Championships. In March 2014, he won the Chinese Championships. And now in April 2014 he has won the Asian Continental championships. Thus, he has conquered his nation, his continent and the world in his age category. He will now surely be eyeing the World Cup 2015.

It shouldn’t come to you as a surprise now that Yu was also the winner of the Asian Blitz which took place during the tournament. Yu Yangyi goes back home not only richer by $6000, but also with a lot of wonderful games to his credit. Particularly impressive was his game against S P Sethuraman of India in the sixth round.

Sethuraman-Yu (0-1 in 34 moves). Yu Yangyi showed beautiful understanding of
the hedgehog structure in the Sicilian in his game against the Indian GM.

The silver medal went to one of the most talented youngsters from India, B. Adhiban (2609), who played some exciting chess to finish with 6.5/9 with a performance of 2732, gaining 15 Elo points.

After six games, Adhiban was just cruising along with 5.0/6. However he lost his crucial seventh round against the strong Chinese GM Ni Hua. With 5.0/7, things were looking bleak for the Indian youngster. However, like a true champion he rose to the challenge and defeated Jumabayev Rinat in the eighth round with the black pieces. This was Adhiban’s favourite game from the tournament.

Once the eighth round was won, Adhiban only required a draw in the last round. However he faced the in-form and tournament leader Yu Yangyi. A draw would have been fine for Yu to win the gold. However Abhiban had the white pieces. It was a typical scenario deciding between going all out for a win or playing it safe. Here is how Adhiban describes his thoughts before the last game:

The last round was really interesting, mainly because of the psychological reasons involved. I constantly had to battle with my mind on which was more important: the Asian title or a qualification for the World Cup. Finally I convinced myself that I am going to go for the title. But once the game started, I started feeling some negative emotions and also ran into difficulties in the opening stage. I managed to fight on and even got a better position. In the final position, when he offered draw, I probably should have played on. But I felt too much was at stake and accepted the draw. I think you never can be fully happy unless you win the tournament.

Surely you remember this picture of Magnus after he won the World Championship 2013.
Team Magnus threw him in the swimming pool of the hotel.

Something similar happened to the Indian star [photo courtesy Soumya Swaminathan]

Adhiban was thrown in the swimming pool of the hotel by the Indian team after winning the silver medal. He had already qualified to round three in World Cup 2013 after beating Alekseev and Fier. According to him it’s too early to think about World Cup 2015 but he pledges that he will work really hard for it!

GM Ni Hua (2654) of China clinched the bronze medal with a score of 6.5/9. What was really surprising is the fact that Ni Hua had lost his first round game. In spite of being on 0.0/1, to score 6.5 in the remaining eight rounds is a wonderful feat.

Pure grit, determination and concentration helped the Chinese GM to qualify for World Cup 2015 and win the bronze medal. A beautiful game played by him was his win against GM B. Adhiban in round seven. Ni showed the power of his two bishops and played the endgame in flawless style. It’s an ending worthy of careful examination.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov played solid chess with four wins and five draws and
lived up to his reputation to finish fourth and qualify for World Cup 2015

GM Wen Yang (2581) of China possessed nerves of steel as he overcame GM Krishnan
Sasikiran (2680) in the final round to finish fifth and secure a berth for World Cup 2015

Salem A R Saleh (2561) gave the local fans a lot to cheer about after finishing sixth with an excellent performance of 2687. Though only five players qualify for the World Cup 2015, the fact that Yu Yangyi has already booked his place on the basis of being the reigning World Junior champion gives the right to Salem to participate in the World Cup.

Two Chinese and an Indian took the top honours: Ni Hua, B. Adhiban and Yu Yangyi

Top final ranking (after nine rounds)

• Full results of all 64 players

The Asian Continental championships have ended and the question that we set at the start of the event has to be asked once again: “Who are the superpowers of Asian Chess?” And without a doubt, this award goes to China! With three players (Yu Yangyi, Ni Hua and Wen Yang) qualifying for the world cup 2015 we can safely say that China is currently the dominating force in Asian Chess.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Open – Women (courtesy TWIC) The games were 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.