Wei Yi, Vaishali Win Asian Blitz 2017 and Indians Win Bronze Medal At Asian Continental

By Arvind Aaron

Wei Yi of China and R Vaishali of India won the Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championships in China on May 21, 2017. Wei Yi who won the Chinese Championship recently tied for first place with former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov scoring 7.5/9.

Vr Aravindh Chithambaram scored seven points and shared the third place with China’s Bai Jinshi. A total of 18 Indians played in this event, nine in Open and nine in the women sections.

Vaishali won the Women’s section starting as the 16th seed. She remained undefeated drawing Khademalsharieh Sarasadat (Iri) and Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh (Mgl). India had a second member in the podium when Padmini Rout finished third with seven points. Padmini played a shade below expectations, starting as third seed and finishing third. Top seed Khademalsharieh Sarasadat of Iran finished second.

The Asian Continental started with a one day blitz on May 21 at Chengdu City in Sichuan Province. The time control for blitz was 3 minutes for the whole game plus an increment of two seconds per move. It was organised by the Chinese Chess Association. Sixty-six players from 17 nations took part in this event.

Final placings: 1-2. Wei Yi (Chn), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) 7.5/9 each; 3-4. Bai Jinshi (Chn), Vr Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind) 7 each; 5-8. Lu Shanglei (Chn), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie), M.R. Lalith Babu, Vidit Gujrathi (both Ind) 6.5 each; 9-11. Maghsoodloo Parham (Iri), B Adhiban (Ind), Wang Hao (Chn) 6 each; 22 Surya S Ganguly 5, 24-25 Sandipan Chanda, S.P. Sethuraman 5 each, 36 Deep Sengupta 4.5, 57 Karthikeyan Murali 3…66 players.

Final placings (women): 1 R Vaishali (Ind) 8/9; 2 Khademalsharieh Sarasadat (Iri) 7.5; 3 Padmini Rout (Ind) 7 each; 4-6. Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh (Mgl), Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vie), Frayna Janelle Mae (Phi), Zhu Chen (Qat), Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie), Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie) 6 each; 12 Soumya Swaminathan 5.5, 16 Mary Ann Gomes 5, 26 Swati Ghate 4.5, 31 Bodda Pratyusha 4, 35 Nisha Mohota 3, 38 P.V. Nandhidhaa 3, 42 Kiran Mohanty 3…48 players

In a standard Event : Vidit Gujrathi of Nasik (Mah) and R Vaishali of Chennai won bronze medals in the Sichuan Airlines Cup 2017 Asian Continental Chess Championship that concluded recently at Chengdu in China.

Sixth seed Wang Hao of China won the event after he and countryman Bu Xiangzhi scored the same seven points and remained undefeated to tie for first. Wang Hao had the better tie-break.  Vidit Gujrathi lost to champion Wang Hao in the middle of the tournament  and raced towards a 3.5/4 finish to win the bronze medal.

Eighth seed Vo Thi Kim Phung (7.5/9) of Vietnam won the Asian Continental event for women remaining undefeated and also gaining a massive 54.6 Elo points.  Ninth seed Nakhbayeva Guliskhan of Kazakhstan also remained undefeated to take the second place with seven points.

Vaishali gained 40.2 points and scored 6.5/9 to take the third place after suffering two defeats to Mary Ann and the champion.

Final placings: (Open): 1-2. Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi (both Chn) 7/9; 3-4. Vidit Gujrathi, Yu Yangyi (Chn) 6.5 each; 5-9. Batchuluun Tsegmed (Mgl), Sadorra Julio Catalino (Phi), Wei Yi (Chn), B Adhiban (Ind), Surya S Ganguly (Ind) 6 each…11 S.P. Sethuraman 5.5, 13 Deep Sengupta 5.5, 17 Aravindh Chithambaram 5, 21 Karthikeyan Murali 5, 28 Sandipan Chanda 5,  32 M.R. Lalith Babu 4.5, 53 Sriram Jha 4…69 players.

Final placings: (Girls): 1 Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie) 7.5/9; 2 Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (Kaz) 7; 3 R Vaishali (Ind) 6.5; 4-9. Mary Ann Gomes (Ind), Lei Tingjie (Chn), Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie), Padmini Rout (Ind), Swati Ghate (Ind), Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie) 6 each; 13-14. Nisha Mohota, Soumya Swaminathan 5.5 each; 15-16. Kiran Mohanty, P.V. Nandhidhaa 5 each; 34 Bodda Pratyusha 4 each…50 players