Victorious Vaishali and Vidit clinch bronze at Asian Continental

by Niklesh Jain - 21/05/2017

Last round of an important event like Asian Continental 2017 is extremely nerve-wracking. A lot of things are at stake and it is important to keep things under control. Two V's of Indian chess Vaishali and Vidit did that perfectly to secure bronze medals in women and open section respectively. With this performance Vidit makes it to the World Cup 2017 to be held in Georgia in September. Report from Chengdu, China.

Photos by Lennart Ootes

All eyes were fixed on Vidit Gujrathi's game against the top seed Yu Yangyi in the last round. Of course, beating a player like Yu Yangyi was not going to be an easy task, but if Vidit did achieve it he would finish on top of the table and most probably clinch the title. This was because he had the most number of wins! However, he had the black pieces and it was important to hold. Steady as a rock, Vidit held fort with the Open Spanish and gave his suepr grandmaster opponent absolutlely no chances and drew the game without any difficulties.

Although he did not win the gold, getting a bronze in such a strong field is an amazing achievement. And what's more, top five players qualify for the World Cup 2017 and Vidit being third is one of them!

[Event "Asian Continental-ch Open 2017"]
[Site "Chengdu"]
[Date "2017.05.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Yu, Yangyi"]
[Black "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C83"]
[WhiteElo "2743"]
[BlackElo "2687"]
[Annotator "TA"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5
Be6 9. Qe2 Be7 10. c3 Nc5 11. Nbd2 O-O 12. Nd4 Nxd4 {C83: Open Ruy Lopez: 9 c3
Be7} 13. cxd4 Nxb3 14. Nxb3 {LiveBook: 3 Games} c5 {White is slightly better.}
15. Nxc5 Bxc5 16. dxc5 d4 17. Qe4 {[#]} Rc8 $146 ({Predecessor:} 17... f5 18.
Qf4 Qd5 19. Rd1 Rad8 20. b4 Qc4 21. Bd2 {1/2-1/2 (30) Svidler,P (2765)-Sokolov,
I (2689) Asnieres sur Seine 2006}) 18. Bd2 Re8 19. Rfc1 (19. b4 {with more
complications.} Bd5 20. Qf4 Bb7 21. Rfd1 Qd5 22. f3) 19... Qd5 20. Qxd5 Bxd5
21. Bf4 a5 22. h4 a4 23. Rd1 Rxc5 24. Rxd4 h5 25. Kh2 Be6 26. a3 Rc2 27. Rd2 $1
Rec8 28. Kg3 Kh7 29. Rad1 {Precision: White = 70%, Black = 76%.} 1/2-1/2

With 6.0/9 Adhiban and Ganguly finished eighth and ninth respectively. Both of them displayed strong chess, but during the critical moments were not able to score wins, which prevented them from a podium finish.

Defending champion Sethuraman had to be content with the 11th spot. His fortune at the event changed completely when he botched up a winning position against Yu Yangyi in the penultimate round

Although Aravindh finished 17th, it was quite a great tournament for him as he crossed 2600 on the live rating list and also beat FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	6	GM	Wang Hao		CHN	2680	7,0	0,5	5,0	2598	47,5	40,5
2	4	GM	Bu Xiangzhi		CHN	2697	7,0	0,5	5,0	2568	42,0	35,0
3	5	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi		IND	2687	6,5	0,5	5,0	2541	44,0	37,0
4	1	GM	Yu Yangyi		CHN	2743	6,5	0,5	4,0	2570	44,0	37,0
5	26	GM	Batchuluun Tsegmed		MGL	2525	6,0	0,0	5,0	2563	42,5	35,5
6	20	GM	Sadorra Julio Catalino		PHI	2575	6,0	0,0	4,0	2570	44,5	37,5
7	2	GM	Wei Yi		CHN	2732	6,0	0,0	4,0	2542	40,5	35,0
8	7	GM	Adhiban B.		IND	2672	6,0	0,0	4,0	2518	40,0	34,0
9	8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar		IND	2653	6,0	0,0	3,0	2568	42,0	36,0
10	19	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham		IRI	2577	5,5	0,0	4,0	2543	43,0	36,0

Women's section

Indian team consisted of many experienced players like Padmini Rout, Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan, Swati Ghate, Nisha Mohota etc. But it was the 17-year-old from Chennai R. Vaishali who secured the bronze medal displaying great fighting chess.

Vaishali scored a crucial last round win, and with 6.5/9 won the bronze medal

Vaishali has shown world class play recently. She won against GMs Eugene Torre and Eugene Perelshteyn at the Reykjavik Open 2017. And now with this bronze medal performance she has proved that she is right up there with the best. Check out her last round win where she beat the Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thanh An in a high pressure encounter with the black pieces.

[Event "Asian Continental Chess Championships (O"]
[Site "ChengDu city Sichuan Province"]
[Date "2017.05.20"]
[Round "9.4"]
[White "Nguyen, Thi Thanh An"]
[Black "Vaishali, R."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A45"]
[WhiteElo "2280"]
[BlackElo "2272"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2017.05.12"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
[WhiteClock "0:08:14"]
[BlackClock "0:22:19"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Nf3 Bf5 4. Bg2 e6 5. O-O Nbd7 6. c4 c6 7. Nh4 Be4 8. cxd5
Bxg2 9. Kxg2 exd5 10. Nc3 Be7 11. Qd3 O-O 12. Nf5 Re8 13. Bg5 Bf8 14. Rad1 h6
15. Bc1 Re6 16. f3 Qa5 17. a3 Rae8 18. Rfe1 Nb6 19. Ne3 Nc8 20. Nf5 Ne7 21.
Nxe7+ R6xe7 22. Qf5 Re6 23. Kf1 Bxa3 24. g4 Bb4 25. Qd3 Qc7 26. Kg2 Bd6 27. Rh1
Bf4 28. h3 Bxc1 29. Rxc1 Qf4 30. Rc2 h5 31. Nd1 h4 32. Kf1 Ne4 33. Kg2 Ng3 34.
Re1 Re3 35. Nxe3 Rxe3 36. Qd1 Ne4 37. Kf1 Qh2 38. fxe4 Rg3 0-1

Mary Ann Gomes performed admirably and it was very unlucky that she missed the medal by a whisker. She finished fourth.

Although Padmini didn't have a great event, she finished seventh. Which shows that if things would have gone right for the girl she definitely had it in her for the podium finish.

Great performance from Pune's Swati Ghate who scored 6.0/9

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	8	WIM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	VIE	2323	7,5	0,0	6,0	2309	45,0	38,0
2	9	WGM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	KAZ	2321	7,0	0,0	5,0	2305	45,0	37,5
3	17	WIM	Vaishali R	IND	2272	6,5	0,0	6,0	2278	44,5	37,0
4	10	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2318	6,0	0,0	5,0	2307	46,5	39,0
5	1	GM	Lei Tingjie	CHN	2482	6,0	0,0	5,0	2281	44,0	38,0
6	5	WGM	Hoang Thi Bao Tram	VIE	2371	6,0	0,0	5,0	2272	45,5	38,0
7	4	IM	Padmini Rout	IND	2380	6,0	0,0	5,0	2209	41,0	34,0
8	16	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2280	6,0	0,0	5,0	2114	33,0	27,5
9	20	WGM	Nguyen Thi Mai Hung	VIE	2257	6,0	0,0	4,0	2333	42,5	36,5
10	14	WFM	Xiao Yiyi	CHN	2287	5,5	0,0	5,0	2222	41,5	34,5
11	7	IM	Pham Le Thao Nguyen	VIE	2331	5,5	0,0	4,0	2289	50,0	42,5
12	2	IM	Khademalsharieh Sarasadat	IRI	2450	5,5	0,0	4,0	2241	42,0	35,0
13	19	IM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2260	5,5	0,0	3,0	2276	42,0	36,0
14	6	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2359	5,5	0,0	3,0	2221	44,0	37,0
15	29	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	IND	2160	5,0	0,0	5,0	2208	43,0	37,0
16	22	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	IND	2252	5,0	0,0	4,0	2181	37,5	31,

Player overview for IND

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	Group
5	GM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	2687	IND	½	½	1	1	0	1	1	1	½	6,5	3	Open
7	GM	Adhiban B.	2672	IND	½	½	½	1	1	1	½	0	1	6,0	8	Open
8	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2653	IND	1	1	½	½	½	½	½	½	1	6,0	9	Open
9	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2633	IND	1	½	½	1	0	1	1	0	½	5,5	11	Open
15	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2588	IND	1	1	½	½	1	½	0	½	0	5,0	17	Open
17	GM	Sengupta Deep	2586	IND	1	½	½	1	½	0	1	½	½	5,5	13	Open
18	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2585	IND	½	1	½	½	1	0	1	½	0	5,0	21	Open
21	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2575	IND	½	1	½	½	½	1	0	½	½	5,0	28	Open
25	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2529	IND	½	1	½	½	½	0	1	0	½	4,5	37	Open
54	GM	Sriram Jha	2390	IND	½	½	0	½	½	1	0	½	½	4,0	53	Open
4	IM	Padmini Rout	2380	IND	0	1	1	½	1	½	1	0	1	6,0	7	Women
6	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2359	IND	1	½	1	½	½	0	½	1	½	5,5	14	Women
10	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2318	IND	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	½	½	6,0	4	Women
16	WGM	Swati Ghate	2280	IND	½	0	½	1	0	1	1	1	1	6,0	8	Women
17	WIM	Vaishali R	2272	IND	1	½	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	6,5	3	Women
18	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2269	IND	1	½	0	0	1	1	0	0	½	4,0	34	Women
19	IM	Mohota Nisha	2260	IND	1	½	½	½	½	0	1	½	1	5,5	13	Women
22	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2252	IND	1	0	½	1	0	1	1	½	0	5,0	16	Women
29	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2160	IND	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	5,0	15	Women

World Cup 2017

World Cup 2017 will be held in Tbilsi, Georgia from the 1st to the 25th of September 2017. Five Indian players have qualified for it. They include Vishy Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Sethuraman, Deep Sengupta (fifth at Asian 2016) and now Vidit Gujrathi. It is going to be an exciting event and ChessBase India will be bringing you detailed coverage. Who knows we might have a man at the venue in Tbilsi seeing that we have such firepower at the event!