The Asian Continental Championships was held in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines from 9-19 December 2018 under the auspices of FIDE (World Chess Federation) and the Asian Chess Federation.
With very little notice and thanks to generous sponsorship by Filipino Senator Manny Pacquiao, a legendary boxer who is also a passionate chess player, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines was able to step in to organise arguably Asia’s most important chess championship.
Christmas in the Philippines is the busiest time of the year and rooms in most hotels are not only at its highest rate but very full.
The organisers really should be congratulated for getting the Tiara Oriental Hotel despite some obvious limitations as to physical size, broadband Internet access, and kitchen but conditions were generally acceptable and everyone worked hard to.make improvements day by day.
Even an unfortunate but well publicised incident involving some Indian players at the start was addressed with warm Filipino hospitality when it could so easily have been responded to differently.
Open Championship
In the Open, a very strong field saw upsets throughout with only China’s Wei Yi cruising through to emerge a well deserved winner. He was joined in qualifying for the World Cup after a dramatic final round by young Iranian (aren’t they all super young nowadays!) M. Amin Tabatabaei, Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem, India’s Surya Sekhar Ganguly, and another Vietnamese in Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.
Ganguly was in great form in the early part but then suffered a setback against countryman Santosh Gujrathi Vidit in the sixth round but immediately bounced back to end top seeded Wang Hao’s chances who too was on a roll after just getting a half point from his first two games.
The biggest comeback arguably however was that of Le who started with a shock loss to local hope Paolo Bersamina after declining a draw by repetition and this was in contrast with countryman and fellow qualifier Nguyen who played his usual risk free chess.
Of the other Indians, Vidit never got going, S, P. Sethuraman’s two losses including one to Ganguly hurt him, B. Adiban allowed too many draws despite going for it in every game and Abhijit Kunte eas comfortable in this company without ever looking to be able to qualify.
Womens Championship
The Women’s Championship was always going to be won by the very much in-form India’s Padmini Rout whose amazing 5.5/6 start and a full one point lead allowed her to both negate the China challenge and cruise home in the last three rounds.
Singapore’s Gong Qianyun who recently became a WGM had the tournament of her life although her six round loss to Rout meant she could never challenge but she did end the chance of Vistnam’s Pham Le Thao Nguyen who in turn ended that of the young China star Zhu Jiner.