(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Gms adhiban of india maghami of iran and yangyi of china score victories
gm ehsan ghaem maghami gm pentala harikrishna yu yangyi tan zhongyi harika dronavali and zhansaya abdumalik seen with elias khairallah hassan malallah hisham al taher shaikh saud bin abdulaziz al mualla jamal modfa and rajai al susi after the asian blitz chess championship. — supplied photos
grandmasters b. adhiban of india ehsan ghaem maghami of iran and yu yangyi of china beat their respective third round opponents to share the lead with three points each in the asian continental chess championship open division at the sharjah chess club in sharjah while in the women’s division former asian women’s champion irene sukandar of indonesia and six others are tied for the lead at 2.5 points each.
adhiban crushed the sicilian defence of compatriot g.n. gopal in a marathon 93 moves and six hours of play. adhiban had three pieces against queen and forced gopal to exchange the queen for two pieces to prevent mate.
ghaem maghami needed only 37 moves to outwit the sicilian defence of indian gm krishnan sasikiran. the iranian champion was able to advance his queenside pawns to threaten promotion. yu yangyi beat local hero salem a. r. saleh in 40 moves of another sicilian defence. the chinese master penetrated salem’s second rank with rook and queen and captured two pawns to transition to a won endgame.
four players follow a half point behind the leaders at 2.5 points each namely gms ziaur rahman of bangladesh rustam kasimdzhanov of uzbekistan and chinese gms bu xiangzhi and wen yang.
twenty three players trail at two points each in the race for five places to advance to the world cup. sixty four players from 21 countries are competing in the open division including 32 grandmasters 11 international masters and 6 fide masters.
in the women’s division tied for the lead at 2.5 points each are irene sukandar of indonesia and six others namely 13-year-old zhansaya abdumalik of kazakhstan nguyen thi thanh an of vietnam ni shiqun of china sarasadat khademalsharieh and atousa pourkashiyan of iran and gong qianyun of singapore.
sukandar beat wgm mary ann gomes of india nguyen thi beat im tania sachdev of india ni shiqun beat wfm hulkar tohirjonova gong beat hoang thi nhu of vietnam while abdumalik and khademalsharieh drew with each other. thirty two women are vying for the title and the chance to advance to the women’s world championship.
a $5000 blitz championship (five-minutes per player) was held yesterday and yu yangyi of china emerged champion with 7.5 points out of nine rounds. gms pentala harikrishna of india and ehsan ghaem maghami of iran shared second and third places in the open at 7 points each. in the women’s division tan zhongyi of china won the title undefeated with eight points followed by gm harika dronavalli of india and 13-year-old wim abdumalik zhansaya of kazakhstan in second and third with 6.5 points each.
all games are broadcast live on the official site with photo gallery daily interviews and video links. visit chess-results.com for standings and results. the tournament is open free to the public from 3pm daily at the sharjah chess club the biggest chess club in the world.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.