Le Quang Liem wins Asian Continental Championship

by Johannes Fischer
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.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.0-0 Bd6 7.d4 Qe7 8.dxe5 Bxe5 9.Nxe5 Qxe5 10.Qf3 0-0 11.Nc3 Re8 12.Bf4 Qe7 13.Rfe1 Nd5 14.Bd2 Nxc3 15.Bxc3 Qh4 16.Re3 Be6 17.Qg3 Qxg3 18.Rxg3 g6 19.Bf6 a5 20.a4 c5 21.Rd1 c4 22.Rg5 Ra6 23.Re5 Rc8 24.f3 Bh3 25.Bd8 Be6 26.Rb5 b6 27.Bf6 Raa8 28.Kf2 Re8 29.Re5 c3 30.b3 c5 31.Rd6 Rab8 32.f4 c4 33.bxc4 Rec8 34.c5 bxc5 35.Ke3 Bc4 36.Re7 Kf8 37.Ra7 Rb2 38.Rxa5 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Le,Q2694Sethuraman,S26131–02019C65Asian Continental-ch Open 20199.1

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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1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bg2 Nb6 6.e3 Nc6 7.Nge2 g6 8.0-0 Bg7 9.d4 exd4 10.exd4 0-0 11.d5 Ne5 12.h3 Re8 13.b3 Bf5 14.Be3 Bd3 15.Re1 Ba6 16.Qd2 Nd3 17.Red1 Nd7 18.Rab1 Qe7 19.Nd4 N7e5 20.Ncb5 Qd7 21.a4 Nc5 22.Qc2 Bxb5 23.axb5 b6 24.Rbc1 a5 25.bxa6 Nxa6 26.Qd2 Nc5 27.Qc2 Ra3 28.Rb1 Rea8 29.Qe2 Ra2 30.Qf1 Re8 31.b4 Nb7 32.Qb5 Qc8 33.Rbc1 Nd6 34.Qf1 Qd7 35.Bf4 h6 36.h4 h5 37.Nc6 Ng4 38.Bh3 Ree2 39.f3 f5 40.Re1 Rf2 41.Qd3 Nh2
Black has two powerful rooks on the second rank and threatens to win immediately with 42...Nxf3+. 42.Re7 White counters the threat of 42.. .Nxf3+ with a counterattack. Le Quang Liem now has the right - drastic - idea but fails to find the most precise continuation. Qxc6?! An imaginative and powerful idea. However, better and more precise was the stunning 42...Bd4‼
and White is helpless against the many threats. 43.Nxd4 What else? Black threatens to mate with discovered checks and 43.Qxd4?? Nxf3+ 44.Kh1 Rh2# also leads to mate. 43...Qxe7-+ Black is an exchange up and still has a powerful attack. 43.dxc6 The engines indicate a cleaner way to a draw: 43.Rxg7+!? Kxg7 44.Be5+ Kf8 45.dxc6 Nxf3+ 46.Qxf3 Rxf3 47.Bxd6+ cxd6 48.c7 Rxg3+ with a perpetual. 43...Bd4!? Unfortunately, now this idea is no longer as powerful as it was a move ago. But after the immediate 43...Nxf3+? 44.Qxf3 Rxf3 White plays 45.Rd1! which prevents the check on d4 and now threatens to take on c7. Black's attack lost most of its power and White is winning. 44.Qb3+ Kf8 An absolutely amazing position: White is a queen up but Black threatens to mate and the black king attacks White's rook on e7. 45.Kh1 Nxf3 46.Qxa2 Rxa2 47.Re2 White has to return material to parry the mating threat. Rxe2 48.Bxd6+ Ke8 Another creative attempt to play for a win. The obvious 48...cxd6 49.Bg2 Re8 50.Bxf3 leads to an endgame with opposite-coloured bishops in which Black is a pawn up but in which the passed c-pawn should guarantee White a draw. 49.Bg2 Ne1 50.Bf1 Nd3 Continuing the tactics. However, Black no longer had much choice. After 50...Re3 51.Bxc7+- material is equal and White wins with his bishops and the passed c-pawn. 51.Bxe2 Nxc1 52.Ba6 Kd8 The position seems to have calmed down a bit: Black is a pawn up but White has the bishop pair and seems to have good chances to save himself. But Maghsoodloo finds a way to add fuel into fire. 53.Bf4 Better and safer was 53.Bf8 53...Na2 54.Bc4 Ein riskantes Manöver vom Iraner. Nxb4 55.Bf7 Nxc6 56.Bxg6 White wins the h-pawn but Black's passed pawns on the queenside are also very dangerous. Ne7 57.Bxh5 b5 58.Kg2 c5 59.Kf3 c4 Here, Maghsoodloo had about a minute left on the clock while Le had about eight minutes remaining. 60.Bf7 Kd7 61.h5 Nc6 The black pawns look threatening but is not easy to push them ahead. 62.Bg6 Ne7 63.Bf7 Bh8 64.Be3 Nc8 65.Bc5 Nd6 66.Bg6 Bc3 67.Ke3 b4 68.h6 b3 69.Bxd6 Kxd6 70.Bxf5 Bf6 71.Kd2 c3+ 72.Kd1 Kc5 73.h7 Kb4 74.Kc1 Ka3 75.Kb1 Kb4 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Maghsoodloo,P2665Le,Q2694½–½2019D71Asian Continental-ch Open 20197.3

Special attention will be paid to Intermediate Moves, Quiet Moves, Sacrifices on Empty Squares, Mating Patterns, Ignoring Opponents Threat, Calculation in Defence and Method of Comparison. Plus 50 interactive examples to test your knowledge.

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

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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

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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:

Le Quang Liem finished second in blitz while Chinese Women Grandmaster Zhai Mo won the women's blitz tournament.

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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