Famously it is said that it is not easy to start a new event but that it is even more difficult to hold it again but after a successful Laos International Open 2018, there will be a third from 17-23 December 2019 and again in the same Vansana Riverside Hotel in Vientiane, Laos, and that is a promise that it is here to stay.

The organiser of course is Inthava Vilane, General Secretary-Vice President & Delegate of Laos Chess Federation and on the technical side he had the excellent International Arbiter Patcharawee Prahmawong from neighbouring Thailand.

The Open Champion was Thailand based coach Louie Salvador from the Philippines who topped a field of 48 players from 15 countries!

All results:

Standard Chess: http://chess-results.com/tnr395642.aspx?lan=1

Rapid Chess: http://chess-results.com/tnr402229.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30

Blitz Chess: http://chess-results.com/tnr402247.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30

Group photo of all participants – players and officials

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.

Special guests of the tournament were awarded under the auspices of the Uzbekistan Chess Federation by its First Vice President Mr. Husan Turdialiev.

Here is the link to all the results: http://chess-results.com/tnr390649.aspx?lan=1

More Photos of the Western Asian Youth & Junior Closing Ceremony

Indonesia’s Samantha Edithso has become a double World Champion by adding the World U-10 Girls Championship for Standard Chess held from 3-16 November 2018 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain to the World U-10 Girls Rapid Championship she won earlier this year in Belarus.

https://info64.org/world-cadets-chess-championships-2018-u10-girls

by Ed Andaya with thanks to People’s Tonight

Final standings:
(Philippines unless stated)
Over-50
8 points – C. Garma
6.5 – P. Roca
6 – O. Rinas (Kazakhstan), A, Young
5.5 – C. Lorena
5 –A. Pacis, A.Camer (Australia), T. Khin (Myanmar), A.Baimurzin (Kazakhstan), K. Jumadullayev (Kazakhstan), R. Roullo, S. Mahmud (Indonesia).

L-R: Roca, Garma, Baimuzrzin

Over-65
7 – E. Torre
6.5 – C. Caturla
5.5 – R. Bandal
4 – C. Padua, K. S. Lim (Malaysia)

L-R: Bandal, Torre, Cartula

TAGAYTAY CITY – Two-time Olympiad veteran IM Chito Garma ended years of frustrations by finally winning a big one – the 9th Asian Seniors Chess Championships at the Tagaytay International Convention Center here Sunday.
Garma, at 54 still looking fit as a fiddle, swept his last two matches against second seed FM Oleg Rinas of Kazakhstan and Angelito Camer of Australia to finish a clear winner with eight points on seven wins and two draws in the tournament organized by the Asian Chess Federation and hosted by the Tagaytay City government thru Cavite 7th District Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino Jr. and Tagaytay City Mayor Agnes Tolentino.
“I’m very happy to win again, especially in an international tournament like this Asian Seniors. Maagang Pasko ito,” said the Tondo, Manila-based Garma, who pocketed the top prize of US$500 out of the total purse of US$3,000.
Another veteran player on the comeback trail, IM Petronio Roca, finished second to Garma with 6.5 points on five wins, three draws and one loss, and earned US$400.

Roca, one of only two players who held Garma to a draw, won over NM Cesar Caturla in the eighth round but lost to Rinas in the final round.

Rinas and IM Angelo Young shared third to fourth places with six points, while NM Carlo Lorena wound up fifth with 5.5 points.

Last year’s champion, GM Eugene Torre, also hurdled his last two assignments against former national junior champion Stewart Manaog and Aitkazy Baimurzin of Kazakhstan to finish with seven points.

Torre settled for the US$350 prize for the over-65 category.

Caturla and fellow Olympian NM Rosendo Bandal finished second and third with 6.5 and 5.5 points, respectively, in the over-65 category.

WFM Helen Milligan of New Zealand emerged as the top female player for the fourth consecutive time with 4/9.
Milligan edged Almagul Chakeyeva of Kazkahstan, who had 3.5/9, for the US$100 top prize.

A far third overall was Olympian Mila Emperado.

A total of 34 players from nine countries — Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Palestine and host the Philippines — saw action in the week-long competition also supported by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

Mike Lapitan served as the tournament director, while Patrick Lee was the supervising arbiter, along with Elias Lao, Lito Abril and Hubert Estrella.

Tran Tuan Minh wins the 1st Pattaya Open 2018 in Thailand

Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh is the winner of the first edition of the Thailand Pattaya Open Chess Championship which took place from 20th to 31st of October 2018. A total number of 105 players from 24 different countries took part in the open section of the event. Tran scored an unbeaten solid 8.0/9 points, a one point lead from the 1st runner-up to become the champion of the tournament. The field included 6 GM, 3 IM, 1WGM, 10 FM/WFM and 8CM/WCM. In the first part we read about the winners in different categories and also the interview with the organizer and now in this 2nd and final part of the coverage Peter Long shares with us a detailed pictorial report of the event and also announces the dates for the 2nd edition.

https://chessbase.in/news/Tran-Tuan-Minh-is-the-winner-of-the-first-Thailand-Pattaya-Open-Chess-Championship-2018?fbclid=IwAR2n7_qIx7Lqwmzz3L0eeC9ieUAfO4ayrcti1YU-Oh4fkkpuwHZvgurMsJM

http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/11212-obituary-for-honorary-life-president-of-the-malaysian-chess-federation-dato-tan-chin-nam.html

Congratulations to the many Group Champions from Asia

Open (Men):

Women:

Congratulations to the many direct title winners and norm recepients from Asia.

Grandmaster Norm

International Master Norm

Woman International Master Norm

FIDE Master Title

Woman FIDE Master Title

Today has been the final round, and all things, good or bad, must eventually come to an end and for many time has just flown by in the Batumi World Chess Olympiad 2018.

Open

We have had the dream finale, the top seeded defending champions USA and winners of the previous Olympiad before them, China, meeting in the final round when tied together for the lead with 17 points each.

Behind them on 16 points were France and Russia who also meet and the surprise package of the tournament in Poland who played an early favourite in India now on 15 points.

Kazakhstan is also on 15 points and following a point behind, on 14 points, are Philippines and Vietnam who also clashed in a final round encounter.

In the end it was all a bit of an anti-climax when the USA and China drew 2-2 and while Russia did all they could by beating France 2.5-1.5 thanks to Ian Nepomniachtchi, the tie-breaks were applied and it was finally 1. China, 2. USA, and 3. Russia.

Of the other leading Asian teams, India finished sixth and Vietnam seventh, Uzbekistan 16th and Iran 17th, and Kazakhstan 21st and Mongolia 22nd.

Quiet and modest, China No 1. Ding Liren did not allow his injury from successfully leading the China team and yes, the World No. 4 is still on his long record breaking unbeaten streak and continues to have the highest performance level in 2018.

The full results are at: http://chess-results.com/tnr368908.aspx?lan=1&art=3&rd=11&flag=30

Women

China led with 17 points going into the last round and met with eternal rivals Russia who are only on 15 points after a disappointing tournament.

A point behind are USA and Ukraine on 16 points who met each other while Armenia floated down to play 15 point Georgia. The other 15 pointer being Azerbaijan and Vietnam was floated up to play them.

With a 2-2 draw, China became the champions in somewhat dramatic fashion with new team leader and World Champion Ju Wenjun keeping the game going against former Russian World Champion Alexandria Kosteniuk after her team went 0-1 down and finally winning.

So it is 1. China, 2. Ukraine and 3. Georgia!

Of the other leading Asian teams, India was eighth, Kazakhstan 11th, Iran 14th, Vietnam 15th, Uzbekistan 17th, and Mongolia 20th.

Here we have the big Mongolia-India face-off, Vietnam happy before their game, and a slighly more serious Kazakhstan. These women will soon be fighting like tigers but before and at the end of each game and match they will be as friendly as can be!

The full results are at: http://chess-results.com/tnr368909.aspx?lan=1&art=3&rd=11&flag=30