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Report by Ignatius Leong

 

In the 9th and final round today, Korean Ahn Hongjin made a draw with Mongolian FM Erdene Baasansuren to secure a tie for the first place when Filipino Daniel Quizon defeated Korean Kang Taehyung.

Both Daniel and Anh achieved the IM title while Daniel collects his first GM norm based on his higher tiebreak.

In the matches to decide third placing, Korean Kwon Sehyun lost to Indonesian Jodi Setyaki. Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok outplayed Mongolian FM Tsogbayar Bat-Erdene while Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc won against Korean Jang Jaewon.

In the tie between Lee and Duc, Duc makes the IM norm because of their individual encounter.

Filipino Kylen Mordido captured the title of Eastern Asia Girls U20 Champion after defeating Indonesian Diajeng Singgih with the White pieces in the 7th and last round.

Although Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh lost to Korean Park Sunwoo, the former still finished on equal second with Diajeng and both achieved the WIM norm.

Kylen will receive the WIM title plus a WGM norm. Congratulations to Kylen and the Philippines!

Report by Ignatius Leong

In the Juniors, Malaysian Dawson Tan lost a 9-mover to Korean Ahn Hongjin within 20 minutes of play. Ahn maintains his lead over Filipino Daniel Quizon and Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc who scored victories over Indonesian Jodi Setyaki and Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok respectively. With 2 rounds to go, the leading players will face off the “weaker” players and any upset may still be possible.

Early leader Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc with 4/4 suffered his third loss in 4 rounds after Round 8. Meanwhile Korean hopeful Ahn Hongjin and Filipino 14-year old Daniel Quizon won their respective games to remain in the lead.

Duc lost to Korean CM Kwon Sehyun. Another Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok defeated compatriot You Haneul.

Going into the last round, the pairings avoided the encounters between players with more than 50% from the same federation. The results of Ahn and Daniel will determine who the new champion will be while the results of Duc, Kwon and Lee shall decide who will make the IM norm.

Let us see if history will be made for South Korea!

In the penultimate round for the Girls Championships, the 3 stronger players breezed through their games to assure themselves of the WIM norm when Rosamund Koo lost to Korean WFM Lee Seyeon. Rosamund was having the upper hand throughout but her play deteriorated and finally helped to be mated in one. A win could have still given her an outside chance for the WIM norm.

In the last round, Indonesian Diajeng Singgih will have to win with the White pieces against sole leader Filipino Kylen Mordido who has 5.5 points – one ahead of Diajeng and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh.

Report by Ignatius Leong

Ahn Hongjin becomes a hero in this Round 6 by defeating Nguyen Hoang Duc to take the sole lead with 5 points. Ahn has cleared all the “contenders” and may breeze through to become the first International Master in South Korea!

Filipino Daniel Quizon was held to a draw by Korean FM Lee Jun Hyeok. Daniel has 4.5 and Lee with 4.

In Round 5 of the Girls Championship, Indonesian Diajeng Singgih wrapped up the game in less than 90 minutes against Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Ming Oanh. Filipino Kylen Mordido maintained the joint lead after Malaysian Rosamund Koo overlooked a fork in an about equal ending.

In the Junior, 14-year old Filipino wonder boy Daniel Quizon outplayed Vietnamese Nguyen Hoang Duc in a long drawn ending to join the lead with the latter. Meanwhile, Korean Ahn Hongjin defeated the Indonesian favourite Jodi Setyaki to also share the lead.

Daniel is another product of the ASEAN Age Group series. At only 14, he will not just be the next “Wesley So” but make a name for himself within the next years.

By the way, of the 24 participants, 10 are under the age of 18 while 4 (2 joint leaders) are below 14. It is still puzzling as to why the Asian Chess Federation “approved” that 3 events take place within 3 weeks … The Eastern Asia Juniors and Eastern Asia Youth currently in Korea and China respectively; and the “main” Asian Juniors one week later in Mongolia.

In the Borneo International Rapid Championships, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, from 4-5 August 2018, Indonesian IM/WGM Irene Sukandar headed a strong regional field from the Philippines and Indonesia which included seven International Masters to take honors and the USD 1,500 first prize on tie-break over the Philippines IM Hamed Nouri.

Irene had led from the start, running away from the field with 7/7 but faltered in the final stretch to allow Hamed to catch her on 7/5/9.

Still a brilliant performance by the Indonesian Superstar!

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/