Asian Continental Chess Final: GM Salem crowned Asian champion!

The final round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board game between GMs Salem A. R. Saleh and Vidit Gujrathi end in a quick draw while on the second board, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly overcame GM Zhang Zhong in an inspired fashion. As a result, Salem and Ganguly both ended up with 7 points each. However, Salem was crowned the new Asian Continental Champion, thanks to his better tie-break score.

Meanwhile, the third place was secured by GM Sethuraman, who pipped GMs Vidit and Zhou Jianchao on the tie-breaks.

The surprise factor of this tournament turned out to be Maghsoodloo Parham, an untitled player from Iran who notched up a total of 6 points. He secured the 6th position in the final rankings and finished ahead of several strong Grandmasters.

Final Rankings: Here

Hogeschool Zeeland 09: Jobava wins with 8.0/9

Georgian GM Baadur Jobava (2664) won in style to finish clear first with 8.0/9. He had only two draws in the tournament, winning the remaining games to win by a half point margin.

Among the Indians, IM Prasanna Rao (2424) won his final round game to finish at 7.0/9, while IM Arghyadip Das (2485) drew with IM Somak Palit (2346) and GM Ankit Rajpara (2460) too drew his game to move to 6.5/9.

Check the final standings here.

Kavala Chess 07: Tiviakov leads with 6.0/7

Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov (2611) leads the tournament with 6.0/7 by half a point. IM Diptayan Ghosh (2531) drew with two Grandmasters to move to 5.0/7.

IM N. Srinath (2476) drew his seventh round game with a player rated lower than him to move to 4.5/7, while IM Sayantan Das (2444) lost to a Grandmaster to be left stranded at 4.0/7.

Check the Round 8 pairings here.

Asian Continental Chess 07: Gupta, Ganguly among leaders

With victories over IM Lin Chen and GM Sethuraman respectively in the 7th round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015, GMs Abhijeet Gupta and Salem A. R. Saleh moved on to a tally of 5.5 points out of a possible 7. The duo, along with GM Ganguly, are currently leading the pack with 2 rounds to go.

Meanwhile, the leading trio is being closely followed by 7 players, including Indian GMs Sasikiran, Sengupta and Vidit, on 5/7.

The penultimate round of the tournament will witness an all-India clash on the top board with GMs Gupta and Ganguly paired against each other whilst GM Salem will be up against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son on the second table.

Complete Round 7 Results: Here

Asian Continental Chess 06: Indians reigning supreme

The sixth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board clash between the leaders Lin Chen & Surya Shekhar Ganguly end quickly with a 11-move draw. The duo are currently leading the pack with a score of 5/6.

The second-board game between Le Quang Liem and Abhijeet Gupta, however, compensated for the short draw on board one. In this crucial encounter, the Vietnamese GM dominated the latter right from the opening. However, an ill-timed Rook swap in the endgame saw Le Quang Liem lose all his advantage. As such, the game soon petered out into a draw on move 59.

In other top games, Indian GMs Vidit and Sethuraman overcame their Grandmaster opponents to move on to 4.5/6. As many as 6 players, including Vidit, Sethuraman and Gupta are trailing the leaders by half a point with 3 more games to go.

Round 6 Results: Here

Kavala Chess 05: Srinath and Das lose to higher rateds

IM N. Srinath (2476) and IM Syantan Das (2444) suffered defeat in the hands of players rated over 2600 to be left behind at 3.0/5. Two players are in lead currently with 4.5/5.

IM Diptayan Ghoash (2531) came back strongly after his shock defeat in the second round to register his third straight victory to move to 4.0/5.

Check the Round Six pairings here.

Hogeschool Zeeland 08: Jobava in sole lead

Gerogian GM Baadur Jobava (2664) won his penultimate round encounter at the top board to enter sole lead going into the final round with 7.0/8..

The majority of Indian players such as IM Arghyadi Das (2485), GM Ankit Rajpara (2460), IM Prasanna Rao (2424), IM Somak Palit (2345) are all standing at 6.0/8.

Check the Final round pairings here.

Asian Continental Chess 05: Ganguly wins, Vishnu loses

The 5th round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw both the encounters between the 4 joint-leaders end decisively. Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly overcame Iranian GM Darini Pouria whilst the in-form Chinese IM Lin Chen won against Indian GM Vishnu Prasanna. As such, the aforementioned winners are jointly-leading the table after the 5th round with 4.5 points each.

Meanwhile, the trio of GMs Le Quang Liem, Abhijeet Gupta and Rustam Khusnutdinov is close on the leaders’ heels with 4/5.

Round 5 Results: Here

Hogeschool Zeeland 06: Rajpara loses as three players share lead with 5.5/6

GM Ankit Rajpara (2460) lost his sixth round game to be stranded at 4.5/6 while three players raced away to joint lead with 5.5/6.

IM Prasanna Rao (2424) has made an admirable comeback to stand at 5.0/6 while Yogesh Gautam (2207) slipped up to lose and remains stuck at 3.5/6. WIM Parnali Dharia (1978) also failed to win to remain at 3.0/6.

Check the Round 7 pairings here.

Kavala Chess 03: Ghosh and Das suffer shock defeats

IM Diptayan Ghosh (2531) and IM Sayantan Das (2444) suffered shock defeats to players rated lower than them in the second round. At the end of three rounds, they stand at 2.0/3.

Meanwhile, IM N. Srinath (2476) came back strongly after a first round draw to win the next two rounds. He stands at 2.5/3 and will now take on one of the higher seeds, Bulgarian GM Delchev (2604) in the fourth round.

Check the Round 4 pairings here.