Chinese GMs rule 16th Asian Continental Championship tilt

THERE

was little doubt among the pundits that Chinese grandmasters, who came in full force, will dominate the 16th Asian Continental Chess Championship Open which ended Saturday, May 20th, in Chengdu, China.

And they did, with GMs Wang Hao and Bu Xiangzhi tying for first in the 9- round Swiss event – scoring 7 points apiece and finished half-a-point ahead of compatriot top seed GM Yu Yangyi and Indian GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi who each scored 6½ points and shared 3rd-4th places.

But the biggest surprise was that the Chinese domination was almost thwarted by US- based Filipino GM Ju; io Catalino Sadorra. Sadorra led the tournament after the penultimate round along with Wang, Bu, Gujrathi and Yu.

In the final round, Wang faced Sadorra, Bu faced Kazakh GM Rinat Jumabayev and Yu was paired with Gujrathi. Wang and Bu won, while Yu and Gujrathi drew, giving the Open crown to the Chinese. Before the last round, Sadorra has an undefeated run of 4 wins and 4 draws – two of the wins against super-GMs Wen Yang in Round 7 and Baskaran Adhiban in Round 8. Before that, he drew with Yu in Round 3 and Jumabayev in Round 5.The last round loss to Wang, was therefore, a heartbreaker for Sadorra.

Anyway, Sadorra landed officially in 6th place after tiebreaks although he tied for 5th-9th places with Mongolian GM Tsegmed Batchuluun, Adhiban, GMs Wei Yi and Surya Shekhar Ganguly. In contrast, GM John Paul Gomez finished ( after tiebreaks) in 50th place, IM Paolo Bersamina in 55th place and GM Jayson Gonzales in 62nd place out of 69 participants. Wen,Yang (2607)-Sadorra,JC

(2575) [E08] Chengdu (7.7) 2017

1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.d4 0-0 6.Qc2 Nbd7 7.0- 0 c6 8. b3 Ne4 9. Bb2 f5 10.Nbd2 a5 11.Ne1 b5 12.Ndf3 bxc4 13.bxc4 Nd6 14.c5 Nc4 15.Nd3 Bf6 16.Bc3 Qe7 17.a4 Ba6 18. Rfb1 g5 19. e3 Qg7 20. Nd2 Nxd2 21. Bxd2 Kh8 22.Ra3 f4 23.gxf4 Bxd3 24.Rxd3 gxf4 25.exf4 Bxd4 26.Rb7 Qg6 27. Qb1 Rg8 28. Qf1 Nxc5 29.Rxd4 Nxb7 30.Bc3 Qxg2+ 31. Qxg2 Rxg2+ 32. Kxg2 Kg8 33.Rd3 Kf7 34.Rh3 Kg6 35.Rg3+ Kf5 36.Kf3 h6 37.Rg7 Nd6 38. Be5 Rd8 39. Rc7 d4 40.Rxc6 Ne4 41.Rc7 d3 42.Rc1 Nd2+ 43.Ke3 Nc4+ 0-1 Adhiban,B (2672)-Sadorra,JC

(2575) [C00] Chengdu (8.4) 2017

1. e4 e6 2. Qe2 c5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 Nge7 7.c3 0-0 8.Na3 d6 9.Nc2 e5 10.b4 h6 11.b5 Na5 12.d4 exd4 13.cxd4 Be6 14.Rd1 Bc4 15. Qe1 Bxb5 16. dxc5 Ba4 17.Rxd6 Qc7 18.Bf4 g5 19.Rd4 gxf4 20. Rxa4 Bxa1 21. Nxa1 Nac6 22.e5 Ng6 23.gxf4 Qd7 24. Nb3 Rad8 25. Re4 Kh7 26.Nbd4 Nxd4 27.Nxd4 Nh4 28.e6 Qe7 29.exf7 Qf6 30.Ne2 Rxf7 31. Ng3 Rfd7 32. Qe2 Nxg2 33. Kxg2 Qc6 34. Qg4 Rf7 35.Kh3 Rg8 36.Qe6 Qxe6+ 37. Rxe6 Rg6 38. Rxg6 Kxg6 39.Kg4 Rd7 40.f5+ Kg7 41.Ne4 Rd4 42.Kf4 Ra4 43.Ke5 Rxa2 44.Kd6 Kf8 45.Kc7 Rb2 46.Nd6 a5 47.Nc4 Rc2 48.Nxa5 Rc5+ 49.Kb6 Rf5 50.Nb7 Rf2 0-1 Sadorra,JC (2575)-Wang,Hao

(2680) [E20] Chengdu (9.2) 2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 dxc4 8.Qa4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.f3 Qd5 11.Qxd5 Nxd5

THE NINTH FILE/22