2016 Asian Nations Cup: The Tiger and the Dragon

The standard competition was played as a Swiss System of nine rounds for the Open section. The Women's section meanwhile was a ten-team round-robin affair. The rapid and blitz championships was conducted in a five-round Swiss as a qualification to choose four teams to play in knockout Semi Final and Final.

The race, once again, was expected to be between the two Asian giants—India and China.

Besides politics and economics, the two countries have had contrasting stories to narrate when talking about their development as chess superpowers as well. For the longest time, chess in Asia has always meant China and India. While the Chinese began their domination first in the women’s events, with the Women’s World Championships, India had a one-man army answering the name of Viswanathan Anand. Then, at the 2014 Olympiad, the world order rearranged itself. China took gold while India was bronze, their first podium finish in chess history.

At the Asian Nations Cup, in the Open, China, with an average rating of 2694, and India, with an average rating of 2652, cleaned up their opponents in the first round. Similar was the case in the women’s section as well.

The India women’s team with coach IM Vishal Sareen

In the women’s section, the India-China affair was something everyone was looking forward to, and they faced each other in the second round.

White to play

The match ended in a scintillating 2-2 draw, thanks to WGM Soumya Swaminathan who saved the day for India with the white pieces here.

Soumya - Lei

After this match, the roads diverged for both the teams.

While the Indian women’s team was satisfied with holding the Chinese 2-2, in the open, their team was left fuming against the Mongols, whom they played in the second round. India was expected to outrun, if not outplay, the Mongolian team. Each member outrated his opponent by two hundred points, if not more. Yet, like death, chess is a great leveler.

“At some point we really lost control. We were even very close to losing the match. You could have congratulated a different champion maybe,” says Adhiban. "It was a bit surprising for us. But the Mongolian chess players increased their level lately and they were very strong when playing against us. I was also playing in that round and I saw the games. I think we are actually lucky to have made a draw," Vidit recounted. The Chinese, meanwhile, romped home with an easy win over Bangladesh.

It was imperative that India went all guns blazing against Kazakhstan, and that is exactly what they did. This was followed by another win, against UAE-1, by a comfortable margin.

Of note was Vidit’s classy victory on the third board in the third round clash against Kazakhstan

Kazhyelgev-Vidit (notes by IM Sagar Shah)

Four rounds had ended and China was perched at the top — a usual sight in Asian chess — while India was placed second. The toughest of the fights in any battle is always fought in the middle — of the tournament. India took on China in what was proclaimed to be the summit clash that could decide it all.

The Chinese team led by Bu Xiangzhi (2724), Wang Yue (2718), Wei Yi (2714), Zhou Jianchao (2624)
and Lu Shanglei (2620) [Photo: Kema Goryaeva]

China was not fielding its A-team, which is clear by looking at the lineup they stationed at Abu Dhabi. Then again, nor was India, sans Vishy and Harikrishna. That said, although the Chinese were not playing their Olympiad winning team, India was basically the (almost) same tight-knit group that had scored the bronze medal in 2014 Olympiad. The clash lived up to the expectations.

India vs. China Match [Photo: Bhakti Kulkarni]

"We are hoping to push with white and steady with black," was coach Ramesh's plan to tackle the Chinese problem before the game. The first result was witnessed on the third board, where Vidit Gujrathi destroyed Wei Yi, with the black pieces! On the second board, S.P. Sethuraman collapsed in the endgame, despite having the white pieces. On the fourth board, Krishnan Sasikiran had an advantage that slipped into a draw.

The scores were tied 1.5-1.5, but until then, Adhiban had already drummed up a winning advantage with the black pieces (!), against Bu Xiangzhi. The former did win eventually, and India beat China 2.5-1.5.

Wei Yi - Vidit

Coach GM R.B. Ramesh was overjoyed about the result. Going into the business end of the tournament, he highlighted, “Important thing is that no one is playing loose moves. Keeping control of the game throughout is a very good thing. Young players are consistently improving in playing strength–a good sign."

Meanwhile, things began to go haywire for both India and China in the women’s section. In the fifth round, India suffered a shock defeat in the hands of the Vietnamese, and then again lost to Kazakhstan, virtually knocking them out of the race. China lost to Uzbekistan, a team India had earlier blanked 4-0, in the sixth round.

After the win in round five in the open section, for India, it was a matter of doing the needful and winning the remaining games against much weaker opposition. "Once we beat China, we knew it was a tournament for us to win or lose. Every player understood the responsibility and did not let it reach the extent that it became a burden," commented Coach R.B. Ramesh.

'We had very good camaraderie, we prepared together a lot of times,
we shared ideas and analysis too, which is very rare,' Vidit shared,
summarizing India's performance.

In the next three rounds, India beat Iran, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan by a very comfortable margin. China was held to a 2-2 draw by Kazakhstan in seventh round. Going into the ninth and the final round, India just had to draw, at least, to score enough for a gold medal. "We were the favourites going into last round against Vietnam. Each player knew their role and was eager to fulfill it. We had no special plans — just wanted to play good chess and that's what the boys did,” said R.B. Ramesh. The result was 3-1 decimation in India's favour.

The Indian team on the podium

Final men's standings

The Chinese Women’s team [Photo: Ju Wenjun’s Facebook]

In the women’s section, China recovered well from the shock sixth round loss and won the remaining matches, fixing the gold medal in their favour.

Final women's standings

Rapid and Blitz Events

Except for the open section, where they finished second to the Indians,
all the remaining events — women’s section, rapid and also blitz in men’s
and women’s section — were won by the Chinese!

GM Ju Wenjun, who recently won the Teheran Grand Prix 2016, won it all! She
was the first board for the Chinese and took home six medals — gold for Standard,
Rapid and Blitz, and also gold on the first board in the all the three formats!

Note: The first two rounds witnessed poor media management as the Asian Chess Federation failed to broadcast the games properly. The official website carried almost zero pictures from the tournament and such an important tournament was almost non-existent in the social media.

Links Official tournament site All Open games in PGN All Women's games in PGN 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.