16 May 2012, Kuala Lumpur – Casto Abundo was in Vietnam to provide coverage of the Asian Continental Championships 2012 held in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
Negi and Sukandar are Asian Champions
Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan awards the gold medal to WGM Irene Sukandar of Indonesia. WGM Mary Ann Gomez of India (left) won silver and WGM Tan Zhongyi of China won the bronze medal.
GM Parimarjan Negi of India won the gold medal in the Open despite a last round loss to GM Salem Saleh of the UAE. Salem played White at left after 40.Rd7 Rf7 41.Bh7+ (diagram) Kxh7 42.Rxf7 Qb1 43.Rxg7+ Kh6 44.f5 Qg1+ 45.Kf3 Qd1+ 46.Kf2 Qd2+ 47.Kg3! Qe1+ (Black cannot win the Bishop because of Rg6+) 48.Kh2 Qf2+ Rg2 1:0 A fighting game between two 19-year-old GMs.
Negi (center) with silver medalist GM Yu Yangyi of China (left) and bronze medalist GM Saleh Salem of the United Arab Emirates.
In the last round, players from the same federation with more than 50% were not paired against each other. Second running GM Yu Yangyi of China could only tie Negi at 7 points each after a draw with top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. By first tie break, Direct Encounter, Negi had beaten Yu and therefore won the title. Salem finished alone with 6½ points for the well deserved bronze medal.
Asian Chess Federation President Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan (center) and Secretary General Hisham Al Taher (right) with medalists and Vietnamese sports officials.
On his arrival in Ho Chi Minh, Sheikh Sultan donated cash to increase the prizes for the blitz to $6,900. GM Wesley So of the Philippines (center) won gold in the Asian Blitz Championship. IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam (left) won silver and GM Ding Liren of China (right) won bronze. In the women's division, three Chinese finished in a 3-way tie with 7 points each. GM Zhao Xue won gold, Wang Jue silver and WGM Tan Zhongyi bronze.
Downbload PGN file
Download games in pgn file for both Open and Women.
Replay Live Games
Replay and follow top board games live at the Vietnam Chess Federation site or at chessdom.com
Results and Standings
Visit chess-results.com for round by round results and final standings
Video of the Round
Watch the video onyoutube with interviews of players.
Photo Album
Visit the Asian Chess Federation site for the photo album No 2.
(Editor: Casto Abundo Photos by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh)
WGM Padmini Rout used the Gruenfed and won in a beautiful endgame against WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam in 64 moves. After 52.Rxh5 Padmini took advantage of the White pawns blocking the Rook and Bishop with 52...Nc2 53.Kf1 Kd4 54.Ke2 Nxe1 55.Kxe1 Kd3 56.Rxg5 e2 57.Rg4 Be5 58.Kf2 Bc3 59.Re4 Kxe4 with one piece up for an easy win.
Negi sacrificed a pawn on the 18th move to open the center since Ding did not castle. Negi was about to win a piece at left when Ding resigned. 
Yu had a fierce attack against Negi's King in the center which collapsed with Negi a piece up. At left is the position after 33.Qe5-f6 when Negi turned the tables around with 33... Rg8! and mating threats appeared on White's back rank. Negi won the Knight and forced an exchange of Queens and Rooks to transpose to a winning endgame. Negi describes the play in the 
The Indonesian saddled her opponent with doubled pawns in the middle game and transposed to a Rook and pawn endgame with the advantage of an outside passed h-pawn.
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