IM Khalil Mousavi Seyed of Iran lived up to his top seeding as he won the Asian University Individual Chess Championship, finishing in first place alone with 7.5 points out of 9 rounds in the tournament organized by the Iran University Sports Federation under the auspices of the Asian University Sports Federation in cooperation with the Asian Chess Federation.
Mousavi, highest rated at 2522, is a 22 year old Sports Science student at Islamic Azad University. He beat Indian IM Al Muthaiah in the 7th round then drew with Indonesians IM Theolifus Taher Yoseph and FM Abdul Haviz Arif in the last two rounds on the same day.
IM Lutfi Ali Muhammad of Indonesia scored 3 straight wins in the last 3 rounds against compatriot IM Novendra Priasmoro, IM Ayan Akhmetov of Kazakhstan and FM Enkhbaatar Enkhnar of Mongolia to finish in second place, alone with 7 points. Enkhnar won third place with 6.5 points, prevailing in the tie break over two other 6.5 pointers.
The champion Indonesian team, l to r, Lutfi, Priasmoro and Hafiz.
Indonesia and Iran finished in a tie with 19.5 game points each but the Indonesians prevailed in the tie break. Lutfi, 23, and IM Priasmoro, 21, Economics students at Gunadarma University, and FM Arif Abdul Hafiz, 21, an Industrial Technic student at Gunadarma, powered Indonesia to team victory with greater number of wins, 17 compared to Iran’s 16 wins. Gunadarma also won the 2019 Asian Universities Chess Championship organized by the Asian Chess Federation in Tagaytay City, Philippines.
Iran’s Mousavi, IM Mersad Khodashenas and Bardia Veisi finished team runner-up. Khodashenas, 22, is a Sports Science student at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Bardia, 20, is a Soil Engineering student at the University of Tehran.
FM Ivan Mezentsev, 21, a Management student at International IT University, IM Ayan Akhmetov, 23, an Engineering and Technology student and FM Alen Rakhimzhan, 20, Finance Student, both at International Technology, won the team bronze for Kazakhstan with 17.5 game points.
Forty eight players from 12 countries competed in the 9-round Swiss system. The tournament is an individual championship with four players per country. Team score is calculated from the scores of the top three of each country. Teams from Indonesia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand competed.
Visit chess-results.com for all standings and pgn files. Replay games on chessbomb.com.
Asian Chess Federation congratulates the Officials of the Asian Universities Chess Championship:
Technical Delegates: IA Casto Abundo of the Philippines and GM Xie Jun of China
Chief Arbiter IA Abdulrahim Mahdi of the UAE
Tournament Director IA Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh of Iran
Deputy Chief Arbiter IA Haroon or Rashid of Bangladesh
Fair Play Officer IA Luxman Wijesuriya of Sri Lanka
Pairings Committee: IA Amir Erfan Hashimi of Iran
Zoom Arbiters: IA M. Reza Lajevardizadeh, IA Hamidreza Jadidi, IA Kaveh Khalili, IA Khatere Azizi, IA Saman Armand, IA Arvin Abrishami, IA Fatemeh Afshar, IA Khadijeh Sharif Nataj, FA Fatemeh Sarfaraz Shokoohi