The Hindu : Sport : Ganguly wins Asian championship

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Ganguly wins Asian championship

Sandipan, Sasikiran qualify for World Cup

Surya Shekhar Ganguly

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly won the Asian chess championship following a draw against China’s Zhou Jianchao in the 11th and final round at Subic, Olongapo City in the Philippines, on Saturday.

Ganguly tallied eight points, same as fellow overnight leader China’s Zhou Weiqi, and was adjudged the winner on superior tie-break score.

Sandipan Chanda, who led the competition in the earlier rounds, and his ONGC colleague top seed K. Sasikiran joined Ganguly as the qualifiers for the World Cup scheduled to be held at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, from November 21 to December 14.

In fact, Sandipan, Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte, Abhijeet Gupta and Parimarjan Negi tied for the ninth spot, along with four others at seven points, but the first two named remained among the 10 qualifiers due to their better tie-break scores.

Meenakshi fourth

Among the women, Air-India’s Subbraman Meenakshi (7.5 points) defeated second seed China’s Ju Wenjun and tied for the third place. However, she had to settle for the fourth spot due to her inferior tie-break score behind the Chinese trio of Zhang Xiaowen (9), Huang Qian (8) and Ding Yixin (7.5). Since the competition offered only three qualifying spots for the next World Cup, Meenakshi narrowly missed qualification.

Swati Ghate, who looked good to qualify after eight rounds, suffered her third successive loss to finish 21st. Two other Indians, Eesha Karavade and dethroned champion Tania Sachdev finished eighth and 10th, respectively.

All those Indian men and women who missed World Cup qualification will now be fighting for the lone qualifying spot in each section of the Asian zonal championship scheduled to be held here in the first week of August.

The results (11th round, involving Indians):

Open: Zhou Jianchao (Chn, 7.5) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8); Parimarjan Negi (7) drew with Hou Yifan (Chn, 7.5); Sandipan Chanda (7) drew with Yu Shaoteng (Chn, 7.5); Abhijit Kunte (7) drew with Yu Yangyi (Chn, 7.5); K. Sasikiran (7) bt Eugenio Torre (Phi, 6.5); Anton Filipov (Uzb, 7) bt Deepan Chakkravarthy (6); Ding Liren (Chn, 6) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7); D. Harika (5.5) drew with Enamul Hossain (Ban, 5.5); Tu Hoang Thong (Vie, 6) bt Aswin Jayaram (5); Tsegmed Batchuluun (Mgl, 5.5) drew with Vidit Gujarathi (5.5); K. Priyadarshan (4.5) lost to Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie, 5.5); Akshayraj Kore (5) bt Jia Haoxiang (Chn, 4).

Indians’ standings:

1. Ganguly (8 points), 9-13. Sandipan, Sasikiran, Kunte, Gupta, Parimarjan (7 each), 33. Deepan (6), 42. Harika (5.5), 44. Vidit (5.5), 54. Aswin (5). 62. Kore (5), 69. Priyadarshan (4.5).

Women: Subbraman Meenakshi (7.5) bt Ju Wenjun (Chn, 7); Irine Kharisma Sukandar (Ina, 6.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (6.5); Eesha Karavade (7) bt Gu Xiabing (Chn, 6); Swati Ghate (5.5) lost to Xu Tong (Chn, 6.5); Le Thi Phuong Lien (Vie, 6) bt Kruttika Nadig (5); Shayesteh Ghader Pour (Iri, 5) drew with Nisha Mohota (5).

Indians’ standings:

4. Meenakshi (7.5 points), 8. Eesha (7), 10. Tania (6.5), 21. Swati (5.5), 27. Nisha (5), 31. Kruttika (5).

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