Le Quang Liem wins Asian Continental Championship
6/17/2019 – With 7.0/9 Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem was sole winner of the Asian Continental Championships in Xingtai, China, five players qualified for the World Cup 2019, Dinara Saduakossava won the women's event with 7½/9, Nihal Sarin finished first in the blitz tournament, and a number of interesting games were played. | Photos: Chinese Chess Federation
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Le Quang Liem with strong finish
Le Quang Liem won the event thanks to a last-round victory against the Indian S. P. Sethuraman. After eight rounds Sethuraman led the field with 6½/8 and was half a point ahead of Le, but in the last round the Vietnamese had White against Indian and demonstrated the potential of positions with opposite-coloured bishops.
In round 8 Le had won against Alireza Firouzja but maybe it was Le's crazy round seven draw against current Junior World Champion Parham Maghsoodloo that gave Le the momentum to finish the tournament with two wins.
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The Asian Continental Championships was also a qualifying tournament for the World Cup 2019 in September in Khanty-Mansiysk. According to the rules the first five players qualified for the World Cup but as Le Quang Liem and Rinat Jumabayev had already secured their ticket for Khanty-Mansiysk the qualification slots went to Firouzja and Abijheet Gupta.
Final standings after 9 rounds
| Rg. | Snr | Name | Country | Elo | Pts. | |
| 1 | 2 | GM | Le Quang Liem | VIE | 2694 | 7,0 |
| 2 | 16 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2593 | 6,5 |
| 3 | 9 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | IND | 2613 | 6,5 |
| 4 | 12 | GM | Narayanan.S.L | IND | 2603 | 6,5 |
| 5 | 7 | GM | Jumabayev Rinat | KAZ | 2625 | 6,5 |
| 6 | 3 | GM | Firouzja Alireza | IRI | 2682 | 6,0 |
| 7 | 10 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | IND | 2606 | 6,0 |
| 8 | 1 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2707 | 6,0 |
| 9 | 8 | GM | Lu Shanglei | CHN | 2624 | 6,0 |
| 10 | 19 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | IND | 2571 | 6,0 |
| 11 | 11 | GM | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2606 | 6,0 |
| 12 | 41 | IM | Vignesh N R | IND | 2459 | 5,5 |
| 13 | 14 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2598 | 5,5 |
| 14 | 6 | GM | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE | 2639 | 5,5 |
| 15 | 27 | GM | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2526 | 5,5 |
| 16 | 4 | GM | Adhiban B. | IND | 2676 | 5,5 |
| 17 | 30 | GM | Chanda Sandipan | IND | 2511 | 5,5 |
| 18 | 38 | IM | Dai Changren | CHN | 2480 | 5,5 |
| 19 | 21 | GM | Sengupta Deep | IND | 2559 | 5,5 |
... 74 participants
Games
Women's Tournament
Top seed in the women's tournament was Dinara Saduakassova from Kazakhstan, and the 22-year old indeed won the tournament with 7½/9, half a point ahead of Irine Sukandar from Indonesia.
Dinara Saduakassova | Photo: Chinese Chess Federation
Final standings after 9 rounds
| Rg. | Snr | Name | Country | Elo | Pts. | |
| 1 | 1 | IM | Saduakassova Dinara | KAZ | 2458 | 7,5 |
| 2 | 4 | IM | Sukandar Irine Kharisma | INA | 2378 | 7,0 |
| 3 | 5 | WFM | Munkhzul Turmunkh | MGL | 2371 | 6,0 |
| 4 | 7 | IM | Pham Le Thao Nguyen | VIE | 2370 | 6,0 |
| 5 | 9 | WGM | Vaishali R | IND | 2338 | 6,0 |
| 6 | 12 | Li Xueyi | CHN | 2305 | 5,5 | |
| 7 | 3 | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | IND | 2380 | 5,5 |
| 8 | 15 | WGM | Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz | UZB | 2259 | 5,5 |
| 9 | 2 | IM | Munguntuul Batkhuyag | MGL | 2420 | 5,5 |
| 10 | 13 | WGM | Hoang Thi Bao Tram | VIE | 2293 | 5,5 |
| 11 | 10 | WGM | Vo Thi Kim Phung | VIE | 2337 | 5,0 |
| 12 | 20 | Zhang Xiao | CHN | 2234 | 5,0 | |
| 13 | 26 | WGM | Frayna Janelle Mae | PHI | 2157 | 5,0 |
| 14 | 25 | WIM | Pham Bich Ngoc | VIE | 2167 | 5,0 |
| 15 | 18 | WIM | Mahalakshmi M | IND | 2245 | 4,5 |
| 16 | 8 | WGM | Zhai Mo | CHN | 2358 | 4,5 |
| 17 | 16 | Ren Xiaoyi | CHN | 2255 | 4,5 | |
| 18 | 14 | WFM | Li Yunshan | CHN | 2264 | 4,5 |
| 19 | 6 | IM | Karavade Eesha | IND | 2370 | 4,5 |
| 20 | 23 | WIM | Gu Tianlu | CHN | 2183 | 4,5 |
| 21 | 11 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | IND | 2314 | 4,5 |
| 22 | 32 | WFM | Tan Li Ting | MAS | 2066 | 4,5 |
... 36 participants
Games
Blitz
In the open tournament the 14-year old Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin finished eleventh but he smoothly won the open blitz tournament with 8/9 as he laconically stated on twitter:
Won 2019 Asian Blitz Championship comfortably with 8/9.
— Nihal Sarin (@NihalSarin) June 15, 2019
Le Quang Liem finished second in blitz while Chinese Women Grandmaster Zhai Mo won the women's blitz tournament.
