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Leading up to the Batumi World Chess Olympiad, it was clear that Asian powerhouses China and India were not only contenders for medals but also aiming for Gold and in both the open and women championships!

Countries like Iran, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Australia may not have the same ranking but are no pushovers and were also looking to shine… and then who knows what else?

 

OPEN

In the Open, it is China who has joined eight other countries with so far perfect scores and those include big favourites USA and perennial powerhouses Ukraine and Armenia.

European champions Azerbaijan in recent times can perhaps now be added to this short list and the likes of France, Poland and Israel have seriously strong teams too.

Until round four, India, Vietnam and Iran was also right up there on top of the standings but suffered narrow defeats to the USA, France and Czech Republic respectively.

Team China

Team Indonesia

Team Philippines

Full results: http://chess-results.com/tnr368908.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30

 

WOMEN

In the Women, China and surprise package Mongolia are amongst the leaders together with Ukraine, Georgia, USA and Armenia.

With India, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Australia (with a team of exports!) just a point behind and still very much in contention.

In fact it was a very good young Uzbekistan that pulled off the first big surprise by taking down top ranked Russia in the second round!

Team China

Team Mongolia

Team India

Team Kazahkstan

Team Vietnam’

Team Iran

Full results: http://chess-results.com/tnr368909.aspx?lan=1&art=0&flag=30

 

 

All photos by are by David Llada / Batumi World Chess Olympiad

 

 

 

 

 

Open

3. China, 5. India, 23. Iran, 27. Vietnam, 35. Kazakhstan, 38. Uzbekistan, 42. Australia, 46. Mongolia, 54. Philippines, 62. Bangladesh, 63. Turkmenistan, 65. UAE, 69. Indonesia, 73. Myanmar, 78. New Zealand, 80. Singapore, 82. Iraq, 85. Kyrgyzstan, 97. Japan, 99. Yemen, 103. Lebanon, 105. Pakistan, 107. Syria, 108. Malaysia, 115. Sri Lanka, 117. Chinese Taipei, 118. Nepal, 119. South Korea, 122. Qatar, 123. Thailand, 126, Bahrain, 133. Brunei, 135. Palestine, 139. Saudi Arabia, 140. Hong Kong, 141. Oman, 143. Afghanistan, 147. Kuwait, 149. Papua New Guinea, 154. Macau, 155. Maldives, 157. Palau, 167. Timur Leste, 173. Nauru, 180. Guam.

 

Women

4. China, 5. India, 9. Kazakhstan, 17. Mongolia, 18. Vietnam, 28. Iran, 31. Uzbekistan, 33. Australia, 45. Philippines, 47. Indonesia, 55. Turkmenistan, 60. Bangladesh, 68. Malaysia, 76. Tajikistan, 77. South Korea, 81. New Zealand, 83. Singapore, 86. Jordan, 87. Kyrgyzstan,  93. Syria, 94. Sri Lanka, 101. Japan, 103. UAE, 105. Iraq, 116. Nepal, 117. Thailand, 120. Chinese Taipei, 123. Palestine, 124. Palau, 130. Pakistan, 132. Kuwait, 133. Hong Kong, 136. Maldives,

 

Nepal chess is continuing its great work at grassroots level in schools.

In the Nepa Youth Club Inter School Chess Tournament held from August 30th to September 1st 2018, Al Shaiyad Md. Janil of Deep Jyoti School became the winner from among 158 participants while Rubin Shrestha Bidhyabasini Secondary School and Shakul Budathoki of Tilingatar School secured second and third place.

Full details at: http://chess-results.com/tnr374691.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=8&turdet=YES&zeilen=99999

China and Asia No. 1 Ding Liren is still at World No. 4 but has joined the 2800 club by increasing his rating to 2804 after convincingly winning his match 3-1 against former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov.

Ding is also on an unbeaten 82 game streak which is unprecedented for players competing at the elite level.

Ranked No. 2 in Asia is Indian legend Viswanathan Anand who checks in at 2771. The former World Champion who is nearing his fiftieth birthday is still one of the best players in the world and was an immovable rock with nine drawns in nine games in the recent Sinquefield Cup won jointly by his successor Magnus Carlsen, his World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian.

In third is China’s Yu Yangi (2765) and in fourth place is India’s Pentala Harikrishna (2743) while fifth is China’s Wei Yi (2742) who is also the world’s Top ranked junior.

Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem (2715) is in sixth place, former China No. 1 Wang Hao (2714) in seventh place ahead of his eighth placed Bu Xiangyi (2712) with India’s  Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2711) in ninth and China’s Li Chao (2708) round out the Asian Top Ten list.

By Emran Mohd Tamil

From its inception, the ICE FIDE Rated Under 1600 Series has attracted a total of 320 participants from the five editions held so far. They are not only from Malaysia but India, China and the Philippines!

Since it is an open tournament, just limited to those with a FIDE Rating 1600 and below, age does not matter and anyone can take part.

Our first champion is the 8 years old prodigy Anderson Ang. Since then only Iwan Spassky Schani managed to win it twice, for the first time in the second edition and then again in the fifth edition.

In the third edition it was Wael Abu Garad from China and in the third it was Leo Romitman from the Philippines.

The series has so far produced 53 new FIDE Rated players (which is the main objective for those unrated) and these numbers have greatly exceeded our objectives.

While my co-organiser Shin Azwan and I have been credited with popularizing this format (eight rounds with the time control 30+30), we drew our inspiration from the efforts of Justin Pereira with the Kajang Classical held in December 2017 and then by Cikgu Rose Imah Ina with the SKBJ Classical in February 2018.

Our first ICE FIDE Rated Under 1600 was in March 2018 and has been held almost monthly since then.

We would like here to also acknowledge and thank IA Peter Long for his guidance and also for his sponsorship of the use of the tournament hall at the Institute for Chess Excellence which is also a Regional Asian Chess Federation Academy.

This weekend of 1-2 September will see the sixth edition of ICE FIDE Rated Under 1600 and we are excited to see who our next champion will be.

Registration is still open and can be made via WhatsApp to +60 19 667 5675.

By Andrew Ooi

China’s Wang Hao won this title 13 years go as a prodigy, and finally returning to play, this time as  a 2700 Grandmaster, he again took the title, scoring eight points out of a possible nine with seven wins and two draws.

Second place was taken by Iran’s brilliant young talent Alireza Firouzja with seven points and a better tie-break over third placed Filipino veteran Darwin Laylo.

The Top 20:

1. Wang Hao 8; 2-3. Firouzja Alireza & Laylo Darwin 7; 4-13. Dimakiling Oliver, Idani Pouya, Deepan Chakkravarthy J. , Karthikeyan P., Bersamina Paulo, Firman Syah Farid, Fang Yuxiang, Taher Yoseph Theolifus, Kuybokarov Temur & Saduakassova Dinara; 14-20. Andyka Pitra, Le Tuan Minh, Yeoh Li Tian, Chan Nicholas, Dang Hoang Son, Yu Ruiyuan & Miciano John Marvin.

Photo is of former China No. 1 Wang Hao together with long time Malaysian chess patron Dato’ Tan Chin Nam who is also the sponsor.

Full results at: http://chess-results.com/tnr371453.aspx?lan=1

The 4th National team championship 2018 was played over seven rounds using the Swiss System and then a final four knockout.

Thapathali Chess Park claimed the victory and the NPR 150000 prize while Lalitpur Sports Club, Goldengate Int College, Gajurmukhi Chess Club were second, third and fourth respectively, also winning NPR 75000, NPR 50000 and NPR 30000 respectively

This very successful championship was organized by Nepal chess Association and managed by Lalitpur Sports Club.

Singapore Chess has lost another faithful servant in IM & IA Giam Choo Kwee, Player, Trainer, Organiser and Sponsor.

Below is Junior Tay’s tribute for the many in Singapore and around the region that knew the man and his great passion for chess.

https://www.chess.com/blog/juniortay/im-giam-choo-kwee-1942-2018-fearless-tactician-much-respected-organizer-and-trainer

The 1st CAP Taipei International Youth Chess Open was jointly organised by Chinese Taipei Chess Association and Taoyuan Chess Association from 11th to 16th August 2018 in the county of Taoyuan – 20 minutes away from Taoyuan International Airport. The venue was the 5-star Orchard Park Hotel.

There were categories for U7 U9 U11 U13 U15 U17 U19 and Open. A total of 63 players from 6 federations competed for the total prize fund of US $10,000.

Prof Liu Ko-fei, founder and current president of the federation proudly announced that this will be a new feature on their calendar. Prof Liu, who personally underwrite the financial cost, said he was very satisfied with the overall organisation as well as from the support of the players and their parents. The next edition will be scheduled for July 2019.

Mr Ignatius Leong, the brainchild of this event and CEO of Chess Asia Pacific Ltd, announced plans to organise 2 more new events (Taiwan International Open and Taiwan International Rapid Team) next year – along the lines of the Malaysian Chess Festival.

GMs Saleh A.R. Salem of the UAE, Daniil Dubov of Russia and Anton Korobov of Ukraine shared first place with 7.5 points each out of 9 rounds in the Abu Dhabi Masters Chess Championship at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Salem used the Sicilian Defense against GM Aravindh Chitambaram of India, sacrificed his Queen on the 31^st move and forced resignation on the 38^th move with a Knight fork recovering material. Dubov outmaneuvered the Nimzo Indian defense of GM Ivan Cheparinov of Georgia, won the Queen on the 46^th move and sealed the win on the 80^th move. Korobov and Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia played to a friendly draw in 10 moves of a Reti opening.

In the Bucchjolz tie break system, Dubov emerged first followed by Korobov in second and Salem in third. Sargissian placed 4^th alone with 7 points. Eleven players follow with 6.5 each, namely Cheparinov and Jojua Davit of Georgia, Richard Rapport of Hungary, Wang Hao of China, Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia, Amin Bassem of Egypt, Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, Murali Karthikeyan, Debashis Das and Harsha Bharathakoti of India and 14-year-old GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.

In the Open division of 236 players, Jemal Overzdurdiyeva of Turkmenistan and Kazybek Umbetov of Kazakhstan tied for first with 8 points each. In the juniors for under-16 players, IM D. Gubesh of India won with 8 points out of 9 rounds.

Over $61,000 in cash prizes were at stake in the tournament organized by the Abu Dhabi Chess Club and the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation under the patronage of H.H Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Sport Council .

A strong field of 47 grandmasters, 30 International Masters, 7 Woman Grandmasters, 6 Woman International Masters, 20 FIDE Masters and 2 Woman FIDE Masters in a record field of 158 players from 32 countries saw action in the Masters event. The Festival consisted of an elite Masters championship for players rated above 2100, an Open tournament for those rated below 2100 and a Junior championship for players under 16 years of age.

Replay games on chess24.com. Look for ADchess in Youtube for running commentary by GM Viorel Iordachescu. Visit chess-results.com to download games.

Photo caption:

Salem_Areavindh.jpg: GM Saleh A.R. Salem of  the UAE (left) beat GM Aravindh Chitambaram of India (photo by Kevin Sarmiento).

Dubov_Cheparinov.jpg: GM Daniiel Dubov of Russia (left) beat GM Ivan Cheparinov of Georgia (photo by Kevin Sarmiento).

Sargissian_Korobov.jpg: GM Anton Korbov of Ukraine (right) drew with GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia (photo by Kevin Sarmiento).