The Asian Nations Chess Cup
The Asian Nations Chess Cup took place from May 17 to 26 in Zaozhuang, Shandong,
China. The event was a nine-round event bringing together many of Asia's top
players including Wang Hao (2730), Krishnan Saskiran (2720), Le Quang Liem (2703),
and more.
Final standings after nine rounds
| Rk. |
Sd |
Team |
Gms |
+ |
= |
– |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB4 |
TB5 |
1 |
1 |
China
1 |
9 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
17 |
28.5 |
178.75 |
271.0 |
2 |
2 |
India |
9 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
15 |
26.5 |
146.25 |
239.0 |
3 |
4 |
China
2 |
9 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
13 |
23.5 |
102.75 |
174.0 |
4 |
3 |
Vietnam |
9 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
12 |
25.5 |
80.00 |
180.5 |
5 |
6 |
Iran |
9 |
5 |
1 |
3 |
11 |
22.5 |
68.25 |
145.0 |
6 |
7 |
Singapore |
9 |
5 |
0 |
4 |
10 |
22.0 |
51.50 |
128.0 |
7 |
12 |
Indonesia |
9 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
10 |
20.0 |
48.75 |
94.0 |
8 |
5 |
Kazakhstan |
9 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
9 |
17.5 |
81.75 |
155.5 |
9 |
9 |
Iraq |
9 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
9 |
17.0 |
41.50 |
70.0 |
10 |
8 |
Mongolia |
9 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
17.5 |
68.25 |
138.0 |
11 |
11 |
Korea |
9 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
5 |
13.5 |
12.50 |
52.0 |
12 |
10 |
Yemen |
9 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
5 |
11.0 |
13.75 |
34.0 |
13 |
13 |
Hong
Kong |
9 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
5.5 |
1.50 |
24.0 |
14 |
14 |
ChineseTaipei |
9 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
1.5 |
0.00 |
0.0 |
A key match in round three between India and China-1 ended in a fighting
2-2 draw
| Title |
China 1 |
Rtng |
2:2 |
Title |
India |
Rtng |
| GM |
Wang, Hao |
2738 |
1-0 |
GM |
Sasikiran, Krishnan |
2720 |
| GM |
Wang, Yue |
2690 |
0-1 |
GM |
Harikrishna, Pentala |
2693 |
| GM |
Ding, Liren |
2679 |
1-0 |
GM |
Negi, Parimarjan |
2640 |
| GM |
Yu, Yangyi |
2626 |
0-1 |
GM |
Gupta, Abhijeet |
2644 |
Already champion after round eight, China-1 continued its dominance, beating
Mongolia 3½:½ to finish with 17 match points, two ahead of nearest
rival India...
... who blanked Iraq 4:0 to cement their silver finish with 15 points (Krishnan
Sasikiran,
Abhijeet Gupta, Parimarjan Negi, Hari Krishna Pentala and Gopal Geetha Narayanan).
Vietnam shut out Hong Kong 4:0 to win the bronze Nations Cup. Above is the
Vietnam men's team, with Chief Arbiter Gao Zhiqian on the right
In the final round China-2 kept pace, beating Chinese Taipei by a 4:0 shutout
to finish higher with 13 points. Iran worked hard to earn its 3½:½ victory over
Kazakhstan. Singapore whitewashed Yemen by the same 3½:½ score. And Indonesia
beat Korea 3:1
Best scores in the open section
Womens division
The Chinese team with new Chinese Chess Association president Yang Jun’an
(right)
In the women's section India beat China-3 by 2½:1½ on the
win by GM Harika
Dronavalli, as the other three boards were drawn. The Indian ladies took Bronze
The Vietnamese Women's team with Asian Chess Federation Deputy President
Casto Abundo and Chief Arbiter Gao Zhiqian.
In the final round China-1, already champion after round eight, beat Mongolia
by a similar 3½:½ score as their male compatriots. Vietnam edged
Indonesia 2½:1½ on wins by Pham Le Thao and Pham Bich Ngoc. China-2 blanked
Singapore 4:0 to tie India at 14 points. Iran tried to land in the medal standings
as they beat Kazakhstan 3:1. Iran tied Vietnam at 8 match points each but in
game points tie break had 16½ game points. Vietnam won the tie with 18 game
points. China-3 had higher final score of 11 match points but as decided at
the Technical Meeting that three teams from different countries shall win Asian
Nations trophies, the bronze Nations Cup was won by Vietnam.
Final standings Women after nine rounds
|
Rk. |
Sd |
Team |
Gms |
+ |
= |
– |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB4 |
TB5 |
1 |
10 |
China
1 |
9 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
18 |
30.5 |
149.50 |
231.5 |
2 |
2 |
China
2 |
9 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
26.0 |
103.50 |
172.0 |
3 |
9 |
India |
9 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
21.0 |
102.50 |
135.5 |
4 |
1 |
China
3 |
9 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
11 |
20.0 |
83.25 |
141.5 |
5 |
4 |
Vietnam |
9 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
18.0 |
52.00 |
123.5 |
6 |
7 |
Iran |
9 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
16.5 |
60.00 |
133.5 |
7 |
6 |
Indonesia |
9 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
16.0 |
44.25 |
94.0 |
8 |
3 |
Kazakhstan |
9 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
5 |
12.0 |
29.00 |
79.5 |
9 |
5 |
Mongolia |
9 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
3 |
12.0 |
16.00 |
84.0 |
10 |
8 |
Singapore |
9 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
8.0 |
16.50 |
59.0 |
Zaozhuang (in Shandong, China) as it presents itself today...
... and the way it was in previous centuries
Was that a good move? Zaozhuang is full of bronze statues – above
playing Chinese chess Xiangqi
Video reports by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh
As in the Asian
Continental earlier this month our Iranian colleague has been doing some
extraordinary – we would even say pioneering – work in chess reporting.
Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh is an International FIDE arbiter, chess trainer and the
treasurer of the Asian Chess Federation. He has a background in architecture
and speaks fluent Persian, English and Arabic.
Videographer (and photographer) Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh in Zaozhuang, China
We have been egging Mehrdad on, telling him to make full use of the local players
and organisers and have them do voice-over commentary on his video images –
even if the accent is sometimes a bit difficult so understand. Show us the venue,
show us the surrounding country, introduce us to the players. He went ahead
and excelled himself. We urge you to watch these professional and creative videos,
even if you normally do not have the time to do so – just to scan pictures
and read the captions. As we said before: who would have thought that an Iranian
would show us how to make chess reporting really informative and enjoyable.
The Blitz Tournament
We absolutely challenge you to pronounce the name of this 2167 player
from Vietnam. The solution can be found at around 3 min 20 sec into the
video. No, it is not a sound glitch – as we have mentioned before Vietnamese
has implosive consonants. This means that the sounds are generated by air flowing
in the reverse direction. Also the Vietnamese, as well as other East Asian nations,
abhor consonant clusters, especially at the end of words. At the airport you
might hear a slightly nazalised "Fla ba far Ha Ka", which translates
to "Flight bound for Hong Kong".
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