Negi and Sukandar are Asian Champions 2012!

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)