Ganguly First, Meenakshi Fourth

By Arvind Aaron

Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Kolkata, India won the Asian Individual Chess Championship that concluded at Subic Free Port in the Philippines. Ganguly drew the final round game with the black pieces. GM Zhou Weiqi of China also drew with the black pieces and they tied for first place on 8/11. Both players remained undefeated in this competition.

China made a podium sweep of the women's section. Unknown WIM Zhang Xiaowen won the title with 9/11 by a wide one point margin. Chennai's WGM Meenakshi finished fourth with a final round win on 7.5. She finished with a strong 3.5/4 for the fourth place. In fact, Meenakshi tied for the bronze medal.

The Asian Championship that ran from May 12-23 at the Subic Freeport in the Philippines attracted 86 players from 15 nations. It included 40 GMs, 15 IMs, 8 FMs and the top seed was Chennai's Krishnan Sasikiran. In the women's section, 45 players took part from eleven nations with one GM, 13 WGMs, 1 IM, 8 WIMs and 10 WFMs. This event will select players for the World Cup from Nov 20 to Dec 15 at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. The women event will select players for the next cycle next year.

Final placings: 1-2. GM S.S. Ganguly, GM Zhou Weiqi (Chn) 8/11 each; 3-8. Yu Yangyi (Chn), GM Yu Shaoteng (Chn), GM Le Quang Liem (Vie), GM R. Antonio (Phi), GM Hou Yifan (Chn), GM Zhou Jiangchao (Chn) 7.5 each; 9 GM S. Chanda 7; 10 GM K. Sasikiran 7; 11 GM Abhijit Kunte 7; 12 GM Abhijeet Gupta 7; 13 GM P. Negi 7; 33 Deepan Chakkravarthy 6; 42 IM Dronavalli Harika 5.5; 44 FM Vidit Gujrathi 5.5; 54 IM Ashwin Jayaram 5; 62 IM Akshayaraj Kore 5; 69 FM K. Priyadharshan 4.5...86 players.

Women placings: 1 WIM Zhang Xiaowen (Chn) 9; 2 WGM Huang Qian (Chn) 8; 3-4. WFM Ding Yixin (Chn), WGM S. Meenakshi (Ind) 7.5 each; 8 WGM Eesha Karavade 7; 10 IM Tania Sachdev 6.5; 21 WGM Swati Ghate 5.5; 27 WGM Nisha Mohota 5; 31 WGM Kruttika Nadig 5...46 players.
 

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