2016 Asian Championship
Final Standings
1. GM S. P. Sethuraman IND 2647, 7.0/9
2-9. GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2718, GM Wei Yi CHN 2694, GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev KAZ 2582, GM Deep Sengupta IND 2543, GM Lu Shanglei CHN 2614, GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son VIE 2636, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly IND 2654, GM Tsegmed Batchuluun MGL 2489, 6.5/9
10-13. GM Jahongir Vakhidov UZB 2578, GM Baskaran Adhiban IND 2665, FM Alisher Begmuratov UZB 2371, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami IRI 2551, 6.0/9 Total of 91 players Time Control: Players receive 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
Others : The total prize fund is $ 75,000, with $ 11,000 for first place. The Top 5 players qualify for the 2017 World Cup
GM Sethuraman Panayappan Sethuraman, born 25 Feb. 1993 in Chennai, scored the biggest victory of his career by winning the Asian Continental Championship held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. By the way, he is a Tamil ( just like Anand, Adhiban and Sasikiran) and they do not have the concept of a family name there. The first two names (Sethuraman Panayappan) is a patronymic ( his father’s name) and he should be referred to as Sethuraman, which is his given name. Similarly, Viswanathan Anand should really be called “Anand” — Viswanathan is his father’s name.
Sethuraman is ranked no. 8 in his country. Previously his biggest achievements were: World Under-16 Champion in 2009 In 2014 he was a member of the bronze-medal-winning Indian team in the Tromso Chess Olympiad
He also became the National Champion of India in 2014.
Here in Tashkent he was among the leaders with 4 points from the first 5 rounds but then got derailed when he lost to front- runner Le Quang Liem ( Vietnam) in round 6. True to his neversay-die spirit though Sethuraman won all his remaining assignments and finished in solo first. Here is his crucial last round victory over Wei Yi. *** Wei, Yi (2694) - Sethuraman, S.P (2647) [D45] Asian Continental Championship chess24.com (9.1), 03.06.2016 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4
The Shabalov Gambit. As expounded on by GM Michal Krasenkow in Chessbase Magazine, if Black wants to decline the gambit he has three possibilities, although none of them have delivered any “refutation”: (1) 7...dxc4 with the idea of ...e6–e5, (2) 7...Bb4 fighting for the e4 square, or (3) 7...h6 followed by ...e6–e5 or ...d5xc4 Bf1xc4 b7–b5 with the idea of ...Bc8–0b7 and ...c6–c5. 7...Nxg4 8.Rg1 Qf6
Black has 8...f5, 8...Ngf6, 8...Ndf6, 8... h5 and even 8...Nh6, but I think the text move is currently considered the strongest. After 9.Rxg4 Qxf3 10.Rxg7 White regains the pawn but, in the words of GM Krasenkow, “the black queen on f3 is quite annoying”. 9.Rxg4 Qxf3 10.Rxg7 Nf6
Another possibility is 10...Nf8 threatening to imprison the white rook with ...Ng6. 11.Rg5!
If Black is not careful his queen will be trapped by Bg2. 11...Qh1
Moving his knight to g4 is considered a mistake as 11... Ng4?! 12. h3 Nh2 13. Bg2 Qf6 14. f4 Black’s knight is in a dangerous position. Akopian,V ( 2630)- Sveshnikov, E ( 2585) Tilburg 1994 1–0 46.
The recommended continuation is 11...Ne4! 12.Nxe4 ( but not 12.Bg2? Qf6 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.h4 h6 15.Rg4 e5! 16.dxe5 Bxe5 17.Rxe4 Be6 Black is much better) 12...Qxe4 13.Qxe4 dxe4 , but from the results of various computer engine vs computer engine tournaments it appears that the text move might be stronger, not the least because it eliminates White’s constant Bg2 threat. 12.Bd2 Bd7 Both players are rushing to get their king to safety. 13.0–0–0 Qxh2
[ 13...0– 0– 0? 14. Bg2 Qxh2 15.Rh1] 14.f4 Rg8 [ 14... 0– 0– 0? loses an important pawn to 15.cxd5 exd5 16.Nxd5] 15.Bd3 0–0–0 16.cxd5 exd5 17.Nb5 Bb8 18.Qc5 b6 19.Nxa7+?!
A controversial decision as the knight might get trapped on a7. Safer is 19.Nd6+.
19...Kb7
Not 19...Bxa7? 20.Qd6 (threatening Ba6 mate) 20...Kb7 (20...b5?! 21.Ba5 Ne8 22.Rxg8!) 21.Qxf6 White has a nice attack with no material investment. 20.Qe7 Qh6 21.Nxc6 Kxc6 22.Kb1 Kb7
Black has won a piece but he has to untangle his pieces quickly before White can whip up an attack.
23. Rc1 Bc7 24. Rf5 Ne4 25. Bxe4 dxe4 26. Rf6 Rg6 27. Rxf7 Rc6 28.Rxh7 Rxc1+ 29.Bxc1 Qc6 30.Rh2 Rc8 31.Rh7
Black has several possible continuations. One is ...Bd7–g4–e2–d3 and another is ...Rc8–g8–g2. Sethuraman sort of muddles along for a while to reach the time control at move 40.
31... Be6 32. b3 Kb8 33. Kb2 Bf5 34.Rf7 Be6 35.Rh7 Rg8 36.Rg7 Re8 37. Qb4 Rh8 38. Qc3 Rh2+ 39. Bd2 Qxc3+?!
Sethuraman follows the guideline that when you are ahead on material you should exchange pieces. In the position at hand Black’s queen is pressuring White’s position and by exchanging it off the winning process is lengthened, but now with queens
off the board there is less risk of being swindled into a loss. 40.Kxc3 b5! 41.a3 Ba5+
Puts all of his opponent’s pawns on black squares. This way his whitesquared bishop becomes all-powerful.
42.b4 Bc7 43.Rg6 Bd5 44.Rg5 Bc4 45.Rg1 Bd3 46.Ra1 Bd6 47.Rg1 Kc7 48.Rg7+ Kc6 49.Rg1 Rf2 50.Rh1 Rg2 51.Ra1 Kd5 Sethuraman’s winning plan is to bring his king to e2 via e6–f5–g4–f3.
52.Rh1 Be7 53.Ra1 Rh2 54.Rg1 Ke6 55.Ra1 Rh8 56.Kb2 Kf5 57.a4? bxa4 58.Rxa4 Kg4 59.Ra7 Bh4 60.Rb7 Kf3 61.b5 Rh5 62.b6 Rb5+ 63.Ka3 Bd8 Now it is clear that the white pawns will fall.
64. f5 Rxf5 65. Bb4 Kxe3 66. Bc5 Rf1 67.Rb8 Ra1+ 68.Kb2 Rb1+ 69.Ka3 Bg5 70.d5+ Ke2 71.Bb4 Bc1+ 72.Ka4 Bd2 73.Bxd2 Kxd2 74.b7 e3 0–1
Wei Yi, who celebrated his 17th birthday during the tournament, and the Vietnamese Le Quang Liem (Le Quang is his family name and Liem is his given name) led for most of the tournament but both lost in the last round.
Liem ( born March 13, 1991) is studying in Webster University ( a 4- year scholarship starting August 2013) and spends most of the year in the United States but, unlike Wesley So, continues to represent Vietnam and always makes himself available for his national team. *** Le, Quang Liem (2718) - Kazhgaleyev, Murtas (2582) [D07] 15th Asian Continental Tashkent UZB (3.1), 28.05.2016 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.Nc3 Nc6 Black transposes to the Chigorin. This usually means that his follow-up will be ...Bd6 and ...e6–e5. 7.h3 Bh5 8.Bb5 Bd6 9.e4 Bb4
The only other move is 9...Nd7 but White scores very well against this: 10.Be3 a6 11.Be2 Nb6 12.a3 Bxf3 13.Bxf3 e5 14.d5 Ne7 15.0–0 0–0 16.Qb3 White has a nice pull on the position. Ghaem Maghami, E ( 2594)- Maiwald, J ( 2471) Germany 2015 1–0 44. 10.Qa4 0–0 11.Bxc6 Bxc3+ 12.bxc3 bxc6 13.Nd2 e5 14.0–0 exd4 15.cxd4 Be2 16.Re1 Bb5 17.Qc2 Qxd4 18.Bb2 Qa4 19.Qc1 Nd7 20.Re3! Rad8 <D>
POSITION AFTER 20.RE3 Completely missing White’s threat. 21.Bxg7! Kxg7 22.Qb2+ f6 Forced. 22...Kg6 23.Rg3+ Kh5 24.Qg7 followed by mate. 23.Rg3+ Kh8 24.Ra3!
The point - Black’s queen has nowhere to go.
24... Qxa3 25. Qxa3 Ne5 26. Nf3 Nd3 27.Qxa7 Rf7 28.a4 Bc4 29.Rb1 c5 30.a5 Kg7 31.Rb7 Rc8 32.Nh4 Be6 33.Qa6 Nf4 34.Qc6 Amongst all the other threats, White can also push his pawn down the a-file.
34...c4 35.Kh2 1–0
You may have noticed that there were no Filipinos competing in Tashkent. Our friend the legendary chess journalist (and not only for chess) Ignacio Dee tells me that we were supposed to send a five-man crew to compete: GM Ino Sadorra and Janelle Mae Frayna, as the country’s top male and female players, along with John Paul Gomez, Eugene Torre and Cheradee Camacho. Apparently our Federation was not able to raise the funds necessary for the trip.
Last year’s Championship was held in Al-Ain (UAE) and IM Haridas Pascua competed only because of support from the Filipino community in the UAE.
In a previous age he remembers that the late Hon. Florencio Campomanes would move heaven and hell to source funds for players to join the Asian Zonal and Interzonal.
I am afraid that without some new people to run the Federation we will soon see the death of Philippine chess.