Grandmaster Rogelio Antonio Jr. of the Philippines emerged champion in the Asian Seniors Online Chess Championship for Over-50 age group while Marat Primbetov of Kazakhstan won the over-65 group in the tournaments organized by the Asian Chess Federation 13 to 21st July on Chess.com.
Antonio, 58, finished alone in first place with a decisive 7.5 points from six wins and three draws in the 9 round Swiss. Five GMs and one IM competed in the field of 16 qualifiers from 7 Zonal championships among 246 players from 28 countries.
GMs Tahir Vahidov, 57, of Uzbekistan followed with 6.5 points while compatriot GM Alexei Barsov, 54, tallied 6 points to win the silver and bronze, respectively. Landing in the prize money with 5.5 points each in the following tie break order were 4th place Ricardo de Guzman, 59, of the Philippines, 5th place Chletri Ram Bahadur, 53, of Nepal and 6th place GM Saidali Iuldachev, 52, of Uzbekistan.
WIM Liang Zhihua, 50, of China won the best woman prize in the Over-50 age group while Nadezhda Iskichekova, 69, of Kazakhstan won the best woman prize in the Over-65 age group.
Primbetov, 70, performed according to his top seed ranking as he scored 7.5 points out of 9 rounds in the Over-65 age group. FM Lkhagva Jambaldoo, 76, of Mongolia followed with 7.5 points for silver while Hossein Ardeshirpour, 65, of Iran scored 6.5 points for bronze. Visit chess-results.com to download games and for final standings of each age group.
At the closing ceremony for both age groups, players expressed their thanks for the organization of the Asian Seniors.
In a letter to Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan, Kazakhstan Chess Federation Executive Director Zhandos Abishev wrote:
“Kazakhstan Chess Federation would like to thank Your Highness and the Asian Chess Federation for organizing such a great tournament as the Asian Seniors Online Chess Championshp 2020.
“The tournament is very useful and important for the Asian seniors in such a difficult time when almost all the offline chess competitions are postponed until an unknown time. It4 is doubly pleasant that this event is organizing on the eve of the International Chess Day.
“Players from Kazakhstan and Central Asia are really enjoyed this highly organized tournament and express their gratitude to Your Highness and to the organizing Committee represented by Mr. Casto Abundo and Mr. Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.”