Four Grandmasters share the lead after four rounds of the Asian Individual Chess Championship in Al Ain, UAE. In the women’s division, two players are tied for the lead.
GMs Pa Iniyan and Murali Karthikeyan of India, GM Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran and GM Aleksey Grebnev, playing under the neutral FIDE flag, are tied with 3.5 points each out of four rounds of the men’s division.
Guess the Sacrifice
In the following round 4 game between GM Jagadeesh Siddharth of Singapore playing White and GM Abhimanyu Puranik of India playing Black, guess the sacrifice after 27.Bc1-e3. Answers at bottom of this page.
In the following round 4 game between GM Leon Luke Mendonca of India as White and IM Sugar Gan-Erdene of Mongolia as Black, guess Black’s sacrifice after 15.Qxb7
and counter sacrifice after 33…Qh4-g5
Karthikeyan (right) beat GM Sina Movahed of Iran (left) in 70 moves of a Ruy Lopez game.
Grebnev, the reigning Asian Junior chess champion, used the Sicilian defense to beat International Master A.R. Ilamparthi of India in 45 moves.
Iniyan beat Meng Hiyan of China in 68 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
Watch live games on Chess.com and Lichess for men and for women and Chessbase (Men) and Chessbase (Women).
Visit chess-results.com for round by round results, standings and to download games.
Daneshvar (right) drew with GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan (left) in 71 moves of a Ruy Lopez game.
Twenty players follow with 3 points each in the men’s division. An impressive roster of 51 top Grandmasters, 53 International Masters and 21 FIDE Masters in a field of 154 men from 33 countries are competing. The Asian Individual Championship is a qualification tournament for the FIDE World Cup into which the top ten shall qualify. At stake is a total of $80,000 in cash prizes.
Two Share Lead In Women’s Division
In the women’s division, Bat-Erdene Mungunzul of Mongolia and International Maser Anastasia Bodnaruk, playing under the neutral FIDE flag, are tied for the lead with perfect four points each after as many rounds.
Two GMs, 19 WGMs, 13 WIMs and 21 WIMs and 17 WFMs are competing in the women’s division for two slots into the FIDE Women’s World Cup.
Mungunzul (left) crushed the Nimzo Indian defense of Woman International Master Afruza Khamdamova of Uzbekistan (right) in 72 moves.
Bodnaruk (left) smashed the Sicilian Defense of GM Valentina Gunina (right), both playing under the neutral FIDE flag. In accordance with International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Chess Federation (FIDE) rulings, Russian players are competing under the neutral FIDE flag.
Three women follow with 3.5 points, namely Seshadri Srija of India, IM Song Yuan of China and WGM Xeniya Balabayeva of Kazakhstan.
Sixteen players trail with 3 points each in the race for qualification into the FIDE Women’s Wold Cup.
Answers to Guess the Sacrifice
In the following round 4 game between GM Jagadeesh Siddharth of Singapore playing White and GM Abhimanyu Puranik of India playing Black, after 27.Bc1-e3, Black played 27…Rxh4+
In the following round 4 game between GM Leon Luke Mendonca of India as White and IM Sugar Gan-Erdene of Mongolia as Black, after 15.Qxb7 Black played 15…Na6xc5
and White counter sacrificed after 33…Qh4-g5 with 34.Nd4xf5!
