Asian Championship

Asian Continental Championship Chengdu, Sichuan, China May 12-20, 2017

Final Top Standings

1-2. GM Wang Hao CHN 2680, GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2697, 7.0/9

3-4. GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2687, GM Yu Yangyi CHN 2743, 6.5/9

5-9. GM Tsegmed Batchuluun MGL 2525, GM Julio Catalino Sadorra PHI 2575, GM Wei Yi CHN 2732, GM Baskaran Adhiban IND 2672, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly IND 2653, 6.0/9

10-15 GM. Parham Maghsoodloo IRI 2577, GM SP Sethuraman IND 2633, GM Rinat Jumabayev KAZ 2625, GM Deep Sengupta IND 2586, GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son VIE 2632, GM Lu Shanglei CHN 2619, 5.5/9

Total of 69 participants

Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1.

The Chinese GM Wang Hao ( born Aug. 4, 1989 in Harbin, China) followed up his gigantic victory in the 2017 Sharjah Masters tournament (ahead of 56 other International Grandmasters) last April by winning the Asian Continental Chess Championship held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.

Ten years ago, he had already tied for first in the Asian Continental Championship ( held in Manila 2007) but lost out on tie-breaks to Zhang Pengxiang. This year Wang Hao had the same number of points as Bu Xiangzhi but this time the tie- breaks were kinder and he was awarded the title by virtue of a much higher strength of opposition. Chengdu is known for many things: If you have seen the movie Red Cliff , it tells the story about how in 208 AD the southern warlords Sun Quan and Liu Bei with an army of 50,000 manage to repel the invading forces of Cao Cao with 800,000 soldiers. Liu Bei was founder of the Kingdom of Shu Han, an area comprised of present-day Sichuan province and Chongqing. His capital was Chengdu.

Chengdu was the first place that paper money was used in the world. This was in the year 965 AD.

It is also home of the giant panda. In fact, the movie Kung Fu Panda 2 incorporates many elements of Chengdu including landscape and architecture.

The universal pastime in Chengdu is mahjong. It is played everywhere — in homes, tea houses and sidewalks. The good news is that lately interest in chess has picked up. A few years ago International Grandmasters Wang Yue and Li Chao opened up a chess school in Chengdu and more and more people are becoming aficionados.

In the past few years, Chengdu already started to organize chess tournaments, most notably the Women’s World Team Chess Championship in 2015 and one leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in 2016. The team championship was won by Georgia, and the Grand Prix tournament by two Indians, Harika Dronavalli and Humpy Koneru. Here, finally, in the Asian Championship the home team took the honors, as two Chinese GMs, Wang Hao and Bu Xiangzhi tied for first.

This tournament also served as a qualifier for the World Cup and the top five ( 5) finishers ( Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Yu Yangyi and Tsegmed Batchuluun) earned tickets to the 2017 World Cup which will be held in Tbilisi, Georgia from Sept. 1-25, 2017. Filipino GM Julio Catalino “Ino” Sadorra finished in 6th place and according to press reports did not qualify.

I am a bit puzzled with these reports though. FIDE regulations provide that the top 18 highest rated players are automatically qualified to the World Cup using the average of all published ratings from February 2016 to January 2017. These averages placed the Chinese GM Yu Yangyi at no. 17 — he already has a slot in the World Cup. My good friend Joey Jereos, an excellent researcher, points out that the FIDE Handbook says “the average rating list has priority if a player qualified either from the rating list of a zonal/continental event.” If we take this into consideration then it appears that Ino Sadorra gets the last ticket to Tbilisi. Perhaps our chess federation should address an inquiry to FIDE to get clarification on this?

Wang Hao is known to many Filipinos, having played in several of our chess tournaments. His positionally aggressive style can be quite difficult to overcome. In Chengdu he defeated one of the favorites, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, in impressive fashion.

*** Wang, Hao (2680) — Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi (2687) [D38] ASIA-Ch 2017 Chengdu (5), 16.05.2017 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4

This is the basic position of the Ragozin Defence. Vidit plays this a lot — in fact, before this game I do not believe he has ever lost with it!

5. Qb3 c5 6. dxc5 Nc6 7. Bg5 Qa5 8.Bxf6 dxc4 9.Qxc4 gxf6 10.Rc1 Qxc5 11.Qf4 Ke7 12.g3 e5 13.Qh6

We are following the game Bruzon,L (2691)-Lenderman,A (2617) from the 2015 World Team Champion in Tsaghkadzor which continued 13... Be6 14.Bh3 Bxh3 15.Qxh3 Nd4 16.0–0 Bxc3 17.Nxd4 exd4 18.bxc3 dxc3 19.Qg2 Rac8 20.Qxb7+ Rc7 21.Qe4+ Qe5 22.Qa4 Rd8. Black’s position was much easier to play and he duly brought home the full point on the 37th move.

13...Bxc3+

GM Matthieu Cornette, the captain of the French women’s team, recently wrote a book on The Complete Ragozin and here he suggested the improvement 13...Nd4 14.a3 (GM Cornette gives many variations here but I will only show you his main line) 14...Bxc3+ 15.Rxc3 Nc2+! 16.Kd1 Qd5+! 17.Kxc2 (17.Qd2 Nd4) 17...Bf5+ 18.Kc1 Rac8 19.Bh3! (“the only move.” If 19.Qd2 Qa2 Black wins) 19...Bxh3 20.Qxh3 Rxc3+ 21.bxc3 Qb3 22.Qg4! Qxc3+ 23.Kd1 Qb3+ “with a draw by repetition.”

What a line! Shows you not to take for granted Black’s chances here.

14.bc3

The other capture 14. Rxc3 leaves a weakness on b2 and Black can take advantage of it with 14... Qb5 15. Qc1 Rd8 Black has at least equalized.

14...Be6 15.Bh3 e4 16.Bxe6

[16.Nd2 e3!] 16...exf3 17.Bg4 fxe2 18.Rc2 Ne5

Perhaps better is 18...Nd4! 19.Qe3+ ( 19. Rc1 Qd5 20. Rg1 Rhg8 gives Black additional counterplay) 19... Ne6 20. Qxc5+ Nxc5 21. Rxe2+ Kf8 22.0– 0 Rd8 White only has a slight edge.

19.Bxe2

Because now Black’s king is stuck in the center and White is able to complete his development.

19...Rad8

Vidit hurriedly brings his rook to e6 to cover any potential attacks down the e-file.

20.0–0 Rd6 21.Re1 Re6 22.Rd1

With the idea of Rcd2.

22...Rd6 23.Rxd6 Qxd6 24.Qe3

The threat is f2–f4.

24...Kf8 25.Qxa7 Qc6 26.f4 Nd7 27.Rb2

Winning at least another pawn.

27... b6 28. Rd2 Ke7 29. a4 Rc8 30.Bb5 Rc7 <D>

POSITION AFTER 30...RC7

I played several hundred games with the late former FIDE President Florencio Campomanes in the late 1990s and he used to tell me that my weakness was in transitioning from the middle game to the endgame. A lot of times I would keep insisting on a tactical solution when the easiest way is to go to the ending. Here is a great example — Wang Hao sees that he can convert to a won K+P endgame and does not hesitate to do so.

31. Bxc6! Rxa7 32. Bxd7 Rxd7 33.Rxd7+ Kxd7 34.Kf2 Kc6 35.Ke3 Kc5 36.Ke4 Kc4 37.Kf5 Kxc3 38.Kxf6 Kb4 39.Kxf7 Kxa4 40.f5 b5 41.f6 b4 42.Kg7 1–0

Vidit resigns. He loses after 42.Kg7 b3 43. f7 b2 44. f8Q b1Q 45. Qa8+ Kb3 46.Qb7+ etc.

Wang Hao’s win over Ino Sadorra in the last round was also quite good. *** Sadorra, Julio Catalino (2575) — Wang, Hao (2680) [E20] ASIA-Ch 2017 Chengdu (9), 20.05.2017 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 d5 6.a3

A bit off the beaten road, more common by far is 6.Nf3. Ino had used this against Nguyen Van Huy in the Asian Zonal earlier this year and nearly won the game so Wang Hao must have prepared for this. 6...Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 dxc4

Van Huy tried 7...c6 but after 8.Nf3 b6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Ne5 Bb7 12.Qa4 Qe7 13.0–0 Rc8 14.f4 f6 15.Ng6 Qf7 16.f5 exf5 17.Nh4 g6 18.Bh3 Nd7 19.cxd5 cxd5 20.Bxf5! he had a pretty strong attack. Sadorra, J ( 2596)- Nguyen,V ( 2413) Tagaytay City 2017. 1/2 61.

8.Qa4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.f3 Qd5 11. Qxd5 Nxd5 12. Bd2 Nb6 13. Nh3 N8d7 14. Nf2 e5 15. e4 Nc4 16. Bc1 Ndb6 17. Nd3 Rfd8 18. Nxe5 Nxe5 19.dxe5 Rd3 20.0–0 Nc4 21.f4?

Now, White’s dark-square bishop has no scope. 21.Bf4 is much better.

21... Rad8 22. Rf3 Rxf3 23. Bxf3 Rd3 24. Be2 Rxc3 25. Bxc4 Rxc4 26.Be3 b6 27.Rd1 Kf8 28.Rd8+

Noticing that his game is getting worse, White goes into desperate measures to try to stem the tide. It only speeds up his demise. 28...Ke7 29.Rg8 Bxe4 30.Rxg7 Rc3 31.Kf2 Rc2+ 32.Ke1?

Loses immediately. 32.Kf1 was a better chance.

2...Kf8! 33.Rg5 h6 0–1

Ino resigned. His rook only has two squares to go to, either h5 or g4. Black will then play ...Bf3 and then ...Re2+, winning the bishop.

Wang Hao took a sabbatical in 2016 to finish his university education. He is coming back very strongly to take his accustomed place among the top Chinese players.