chessbase india logo

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!