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Report by Ignatius Leong

The Girls Championship is in a 3-way deadlock after Round 3 when the encounter between Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh and Kylen Mordido ended in a draw. Diajeng Singgih’s win over the third consecutive Korean opponent Kim Yubin put her in the joint lead. Rosamund Koo won against Tuya Khuslen, the only player in the event who has yet to score.

In the Junior, top seed Jodi Setyaki over-reached and Nguyen Hoang Duc increased his lead by the full point. Duc is followed by Daniel Quizon and Ahn Hongjin.

Full results for Boys at http://chess-results.com/tnr369418.aspx?lan=1 and for Girls at http://chess-results.com/tnr369417.aspx?lan=1

Report by Ignatius Leong

In round 2, Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc defeated Mongolian Ganzorig Bulgankhan to join the lead with another Mongolian FM Erdene Baasansuren. The best Koreans FM Lee Jun Hyeok and Ahn Hongjin played out a draw.

In afternoon round 3, Duc went on to beat Bulgankhan to take the sole lead. Hongjin and 14-year old Filipino Daniel Quizon were engaged in a long-drawn out stonewall structure leaving basically no chances of any breakthrough. Indonesian favourite FM Jodi Setyaki went on the offensive against FM Lee which backfired leaving Setyaki defending his naked King with Bishop and Knight but under fire from his opponent’s Queen, Rook and Bishop. Lee’s King appeared to be safe but a very silly move helped his King got checkmated in 2!

In the Girls’ event, Filipino Kylen Mordido share the temporary lead with Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh when top seed Indonesian Diajeng Singgih was held to a draw by Korean WFM Lee Seyeon – both are only 14 years old.

The current results of the above 3 Koreans (FMs/WFM) are indicative that South Korea will be a major player in the near future. It goes to show that this 17-nation zone is getting too heavy. The combined population is around 1 billion but more worrisome is that it stretches from Timor Leste in the South to Mongolia in the north, and from Myanmar across the South China Sea to the Philippines. Air travel is worst than flying within the 2 extreme destinations in Europe.

In the end the Asian Nations Cup 2018 proved to be a huge success for hosts Iran with a sweep of all three Golds for their men and a Bronze for their women in Rapid Chess.

Overall China took the most medals – getting something in every category, their women getting two Golds and one Bronze while the men took two Silver and one Bronze.

India’s men got one Silver and one Bronze while their women got one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze.

Men

http://chess-results.com/tnr366602.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30

The Asian Nations Cup saw the young team from hosts Iran replicate in Standard Chess their earlier success in Rapid Chess with a powerful performance that left Asia powerhouses China and India essentially just fighting for second place.

Iran beat all their rivals convincingly and with first place already secured was even able to make a short draw with their second team in the penultimate round.

China sent their B team and paid a heavy price when India who were represented by a mix of A and B players snatched the Silver on tie-break, both teams finishing a point ahead of a very competitive Kazakhstan Olympiad side and the Iran B team.

In the final Blitz event, Iran completed a clean sweep and this time China was second and Vietnam got their first medal, taking third place for Bronze.

Women

http://chess-results.com/tnr366780.aspx?lan=1&art=20&snr=2&turdet=YES&flag=30

Except for a surprise draw with Uzbekistan, it was really a stroll for the China team, like India, fielding a mixture of A and B players, as they won all their other matches.

Vietnam put up the biggest challenge in taking Silver, narrowly losing to China and only held to one draw by Iran.

Surprisingly India was unable to mount a challenge, but took Bronze on tiebreak over Uzbekistan and this result has to be considered to be a failure for the No. 2 ranked Asian chess nation who are looking to mount a medal challenge at the coming Batumi Olympiad.

India’s however managed to take Gold in the Blitz which closed off the championships, the Vietnamese women going one better than their men with Silver and China taking Bronze.

By Ignatius Leong

The Eastern Asia Junior & Girls U-20 Championships finally took off at 3 p.m. 2^nd August 2018 after some uncertainty over the arrival of Mongolian players.

On 10 July, the Mongolian Chess Federation registered 19 players (and 44 accompanying persons!). Despite several reminders, only 2 players arrived (giving short notice) while there was no response from the federation. Couple of hours before the technical meeting, an email was received that 2 players will arrive (after 12 midnight).

Meanwhile 13 juniors and 7 girls presented themselves at the technical meeting. This created a problem as to what would be best to preserve the Direct Titles for those who showed up. The meeting agreed to postpone the start of the first round and re-scheduled the subsequent rounds. Fortunately, the 2 players who arrived were one each for the respective section. Hence the minimum requirement of 8 players from 5 federations was achieved with the girls playing a 7-round Swiss while the open category avoided the byes.

In the first round, late arrival FM Ganzorig Bulgankhan was unable to convert his strong position and drew against top seed Indonesian FM Jodi Setyaki who was suffering some stomach discomfort. 2^nd seed Mongolian FM Tsogbayar Bat-Erdene lost to little known Nguyen Hoang Duc of Vietnam. Malaysia’s Dawson Tan held Filipino young talent 3^rd seed Daniel Quizon to a draw.

In the girls category, top seed Indonesian Diajeng Singgih defeated local WCM Park Sunwoo. Vietnamese WFM Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh upset 2^nd seed Malaysian Rosamund Koo.

Kim Yubin’s win over Mongolian Tuya Khuslen was the only Korean win against any foreigner in this round.

Full results can be found at for Boys at http://chess-results.com/tnr369418.aspx?lan=1 and for Girls at http://chess-results.com/tnr369417.aspx?lan=1

The pecking order in Asian chess has been quite constant for many years now, and this is confirmed by the latest monthly FIDE rating list that ranks countries based on the average rating of its top ten players.

Men

China which is ranked number two in the world rankings and with the most number of 2700+ players leads Asia while their main rivals India which is ranked number six in ten world are in second place.

In third place is Iran, ranked 28th in the world, powered by a golden generation of young talent, in evidence at the ongoing Asian nations Cup where China’s second team and a representative Indian team have no proven to be as strong.

Next come the trio, in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Kazakhstan.

In seventh place is Australia and in eighth is the Philippines while Mongolia is in ninth place and Indonesia in the tenth spot.

Women

As far as the top two places in Asian women chess is concerned, it is World No. 1 China, now in a tie with Russia, which leads with India second with seventh place world ranking.

Kazakhstan, on the back of a rivalry between their top two equally talented young potential world beaters, are in third place.

Then comes Mongolia in fourth place and Vietnam in fifth.

Indonesia is sixth but not participating in the Asian Nations Cup but seventh placed hosts Iran lead by their own super talent certainly are!

Uzbekistan, Australia and Philippines in eighth, ninth and tenth places round up the Asian top ten.

The Asian Nations Cup as organised by the Iran Chess Federation under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation, is being held in Hamadan, Iran, from 26 July to 4 August 2018.

A total of twelve countries are taking part – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – with all the big boys (and girls) present!

In the Rapid event, a young Iran team both impressed and surprised, taking first place and Gold for the first time ever, and ahead of China and India which finished second and third respectively. Uzbekistan had the same score to to tie second to fourth places but failed to medal on tie-break.

There was less drama in the women’s section with China comfortably first, India second and Iran third.

Fill details of the results can be found at: http://chess-results.com/tnr368152.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30.

Also, see the official website at: http://asiannationscup2018.ircf.ir/

The Asian Schools Chess Championship 2018 was held from 7th to 15th July 2018 at Kaluthara, Sri Lanka and organised by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation.

Luxman Wijesuriya, Chairman of the Organizing Committee expressed his pride at the record more than 450 entries which surpassed by far the participation in the many previous Asian events held and thanked in particular, Sheikh Sulta Kalifa Al Nayan, President of the Asian Chess Federation and Hisham Al-Taher, General Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation for their support throughout.

Fifteen countries took part, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and hosts Sri Lanka.

In Standard Chess, Uzbekistan with seven gold, two silver and one bronze were the outstanding performers, their ten medals also the most number won.

Kazakhstan with two gold, one silver and two bronze far behind in second place while hosts Sri Lanka tied India with one gold, three silver and two bronze to share the third spot.

Uzbekistan was also the big winner in Rapid Chess, eleven medals, four gold, four silver and three bronze.

In second place was however a much more competitive India with three gold, two silver and three bronze with hosts Sri Lanka tying Kazakhstan in third place with two gold, two silver and one bronze.

For detailed results, see: http://chess-results.com/tnr364567.aspx?lan=1