Younghusband hits 2 in Azkals’ drubbing of Nepal in Asian Cup
THE
St. Louis Arch Bishops, with GM Wesley So on top board, defeated the Norway Gnomes led by world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, 9-7, in the final to win the 2017 PRO Chess League which ended online Sunday, March 26th.
The 2017 PRO Chess League is a rapid chess tournament that took place on the chess. com website and ran from January 11th to March 26th. Forty-eight (48) city-based teams from all over the world played in four groups with matches every Wednesday during the period. Each team has four players who play each member of the opposing team once. The top six teams in each group qualify for the next stage, and the top team in each group qualifies to the finals. The time control is 15 minutes plus 2 seconds increment per move.
Besides Carlsen and So, the top super-GM participants i nclude Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier- Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Baadur Jobava. US-based Filipino GMs Oliver Barbosa, Darwin Laylo, Mark Paragua and FM Ivan Biag also competed playing for the New York Knights, while GM Julio Catalino Sadorra played for the Dallas Destiny.
The final four were the Norway Gnomes, the Montreal ChessBrahs, the St. Louis Arch Bishops and the Stockholm Snowballs. The Gnomes beat the Snowballs and the Arch Bishops defeated the ChessBrahs to set up the championship showdown which the Arch Bishops won. So,Wesley (2822)-Carlsen,M
(2838) [E11] chess.com (5.4) 2017 Caruana,F (2817)-So,Wesley
(2822) [C19] chess.com (4.8) 2017 MANILA – The Philippine
n rt Azkals opened its campaign in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers on a bright note with a 4- 1 domination of Nepal on Tuesday night at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
Phil Younghusband fired two goals, while Iain Ramsay and Javier Patino added a conversion each for the Azkals, which took the early lead in the Group F standings with three points.
Younghusband could have surged the Azkals ahead as early as the 12th minute but his shot was deflected by Nepalese Bikram Lana.
However, Younghusband refused to be denied as he fired consecutive goals – first a penalty kick in the 21st minute and another two minutes later from a pass by Manuel Ott.
The Azkals widened the lead to 3-0 as Ramsay scored on a direct attempt past Nepal keeper Kiram Kumar Limbu. The Nepalese, however, trimmed the deficit before halftime on a Bishal Rai hit.
In the second half, the Nepalese team failed to mount a comeback against the tight defense of the Azkals. In the 74th minute, the home team sealed the lopsided win with a Patino conversion.
“It was difficult in the beginning. Nepal prepared for three weeks in high altitude. We know that they can run for 90 minutes,” said Azkals head coach Thomas Dooley. “I’m very happy with three points, I’m happy with how we created combinations.”
“Result is not good for us. We had to change plan. It is difficult to control the game,” said Nepal head coach Koji Gyotoku. “We have a hard time guarding (Azkals) players especially No. 7 (Younghusband) and No. 19 (Jeffrey Christiaens).”
The Azkals, which played without i njured Misagh Bahadoran, retired Ronald Muller and suspended Martin Steuble, will be back in action on June 13 against Tajikistan at the latter’s home turf./