The third round has been completed in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Games of the third round of the Asian Cities Team Championship were played at the Ugra Chess Academy.
In the main match of the round, or even the entire tournament, the Surgut team defeated the Tehran men’s team with a score of 3:1. On the first table, Ilya Ilyushenok held black against Bardiya Daneshvar. On the second table, Ivan Bocharov outplayed Movahed Sina in a double-edged fight with white.
We give the floor to the winner: “Without computer analysis, it is still difficult to say what happened. However, judging by our opponent’s and my emotions, it was clear that many interesting events had happened. There were big swings, and perhaps subjectively we perceived them as stronger than they really were. I gained an advantage when I managed to withdraw pieces, capture the center, and Black’s forces fell behind. I realized that my young opponent was overly reliant on specific variations, and I needed to understand that the position was too dangerous and not worth going there.”
On the third board, Alexey Pridorozhny defeated Masoud Mossadeghpour, and the game Kabanov – Atakhan ended peacefully.
The match between Tula and the Tehran women’s team ended in a draw. On the first board, Daniil Manelyuk defeated Tannaz Azali with black, and on the third, Melika Mohammadi was stronger than Dmitry Rodin. Let us note that this is already the third victory of the Iranian chess player in this competition.
FIDE Master Daniil Manelyuk briefly commented on his game: “In fact, it was quite difficult: I didn’t play very well in the opening, perhaps I was in a hurry. The opponent sacrificed a pawn for the initiative and continued to play well. I think there were a couple of moments when she could have played stronger. But in the end I managed to outsmart her and get out of this situation.”
The Moscow team beat the Malaysian team from Penang with a score of 3:1. Stanislav Khudyakov and Marat Gilfanov, who won his third game at the Asian Cities Championship, brought points to their team.
The match Colombo – Muscat ended in victory for the athletes from Sri Lanka with a score of 3:1. The Kathmandu – El-Mahra match did not reveal the strongest – 2:2.
The home team’s youth team beat the representatives of Sukhbaatar with a score of 3:1. Bogdan Perchinsky, Dinis Sattarov and Alexander Machankin distinguished themselves.
The Al-Quds team was free from the game.
Based on the results of three rounds, Surgut is in the lead with 6 match points. The Tula team is 1 point behind. The men’s team of Tehran (9 individual points), the women’s team of Tehran (8), Moscow, Colombo (7.5 each) and Baghdad (5.5) scored 4 points each.
Pairs of the 4th round:
Surgut – Tula
Colombo – Tehran (men)
Baghdad – Moscow
Khanty-Mansiysk – Tehran (women)
Kathmandu – Pavlodar
Penang – Al-Mahra
Muscat – Al-Quds
Day off – Sukhbaatar.