(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Former champion sukandar grabs lead of asian continental women?s chess.
former asian women’s champion wgm irene sukandar of indonesia (left) beat wim ni shiqun of china to clinch the lead in the asian continental chess championships at the sharjah chess club on tuesday. — supplied photo
former asian women’s champion irene sukandar of indonesia grabbed the solo lead of the asian continental women’s chess championship while in the open division seven grandmasters remained tied for the lead at the halfway mark of the $65000 tournament at the sharjah chess club in sharjah.
sukandar beat ni shiqun of china in a marathon 73 moves of a giuoco piano game. the indonesian changed two rooks for a queen and two pawns on the 44th move and advanced passed pawns on both wings to force resignation and lead alone with 4.5 points out of five rounds. in the open division gms b. adhiban and s.p. sethuraman of india are tied for the lead at four points each together with ziaur rahman of bangladesh ehsan ghaem maghami of iran yu yangyi of china and rustam kasimjanov of uzbekistan.
adhiban and ghaem maghami drew with each other in 71 moves of ruy lopez game. yu yangyi drew with compatriot wei yi in 36 moves of a sicilian najdorf by repetition of position after sacrificing a rook to penetrate with his checks on an exposed king. in decisive games rahman beat gm nguyen ngoc truong son of vietnam in 64 moves of a queen’s gambit declined. sethuraman crushed the sicilian defence of untitled chinese chu wei chao threatening mate in 55 moves. gm rinat jumabayev used the berlin defence of the ruy lopez to beat gm prasanna vishnu of india who was facing checkmate after 44 moves.
six players trail a half point behind with 3.5 points each namely local hero saleh a. r. salem of the uae chinese gms ni hua bu xiangzhi wen yang and wei yi and mohammed al sayed of qatar.
in the women’s division sarasadat khademalsharieh of iran used the queen’s indian defence against wgm nguyen thi thanh an of vietnam and offered a bishop sacrifice on the 42nd move which would have led to mate. after losing a rook the vietnamese resigned on the 58th move. six players trail in third slot at 3.5 points each namely ni shiqun im tania sachdev of india wgm atousa pourkashiyan of iran wgm hoang thi boa tram of vietnam and im munguntuul batkhuyag of mongolia. the women’s champion advances to the next phase of the women’s world championship. both open and women’s tournaments are nine-round swiss system tournaments. a total of $65000 in cash prizes are at stake in the tournaments organized by the uae chess federation and sharjah chess club.
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