Asian Cities kicks of in KIIT, Bhubaneshwar
by Gopakumar Sudhakaran - 27/08/2017
Asian Cities 2017 is being held in the Kalinga Institute Campus, Bhubaneshwar from the 26th of August to 1st of September 2017. Rasht from Iran is the top seed with the local KIIT team being the second seeds. Twelve teams are taking part in this event. Five teams are from India: KIIT, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Puri, Cuttack and Bhubaneshwar, while we have six International teams from Iran, UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Oman, Palestine and Chinese Taipei. We have round one report.
Asian Cities Chess Championship for Dubai Cup got off to a rousing start at KIIT University Bhubaneswar on Saturday. A total number of 12 teams from eight countries are participating in this prestigious event.
The playing hall
Rasht team from Iran got the top billing followed by KIIT Bhubaneswar and Dhaka. Except Dhaka, all top ranked teams started the championship on winning note while late arrival of player caused Dhaka dearly as they settled for draw against Alquds, Palestine.
Rasht (right) defeated Puri 3 ½ - ½
Host KIIT Bhubaneswar outwitted Muscat on same margin.
The pride of Odisha chess: IM Sekhar Sahu
Penang, Dubai and Kolkata got better off Chinese Taipei, Cuttack and KISS Bhubaneswar, respectively in the opening round with 3 -1 margin.
The championship was inaugurated by Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Registrar KIIT University in presence of Shri. SC Sahu, Vice President Ail India Chess Federation, Shri. KK Sarma, Secretary All Odisha Chess Association and Shri. Abdulrahim Mahdi, Chief Arbiter of the event.
Rank after Round 1
| Rk. | SNo | | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 |
| 1 | 1 | | Rasht, Iran | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3,5 | 1,8 |
| 2 | 2 | | Bhubaneswar (KIIT), India | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3,5 | 1,8 |
| 3 | 4 | | Penang, Malaysia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3,0 | 3,0 |
| 4 | 5 | | Dubai, UAE | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3,0 | 3,0 |
| 5 | 6 | | Kolkata, India | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3,0 | 3,0 |
| 6 | 3 | | Dhaka, Bangladesh | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2,0 | 4,0 |
| 7 | 9 | | Alquds, Palestine | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2,0 | 4,0 |
| 8 | 10 | | Chinese Taipei | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1,0 | 3,0 |
| 9 | 11 | | Cuttack, India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1,0 | 3,0 |
| 10 | 12 | | Bhubaneswar (KISS), India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1,0 | 3,0 |
| 11 | 7 | | Puri, India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 1,8 |
| 12 | 8 | | Muscut, Oman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0,5 | 1,8
|
Board Pairings and results of Round 1
| Round 1 on 2017/08/26 at 1500 hrs |
| Bo. | 1 | Rasht, Iran | Rtg | - | 7 | Puri, India | Rtg | 3½: ½ |
| 1.1 | | | 2381 | - | | | 1219 | 1 - 0 |
| 1.2 | | | 2255 | - | | | 2074 | ½ - ½ |
| 1.3 | FM | | 2335 | - | | | 2211 | 1 - 0 |
| 1.4 | IM | | 2327 | - | | | 1755 | 1 - 0 |
| Bo. | 8 | Muscut, Oman | Rtg | - | 2 | Bhubaneswar (KIIT), India | Rtg | ½ :3½ |
| 2.1 | | | 1783 | - | FM | | 2394 | 0 - 1 |
| 2.2 | | | 1898 | - | | | 2247 | ½ - ½ |
| 2.3 | | | Mohammed, Ahmed Said Al Amri |
| 1711 | - | IM | | 2167 | 0 - 1 |
| 2.4 | FM | | Salim, Mohammed Salim Al Amri |
| 2010 | - | WGM | | 2162 | 0 - 1 |
| Bo. | 3 | Dhaka, Bangladesh | Rtg | - | 9 | Alquds, Palestine | Rtg | 2 : 2 |
| 3.1 | FM | | 2131 | - | | | 1909 | 1 - 0 |
| 3.2 | IM | | 2428 | - | | | 1874 | 1 - 0 |
| 3.3 | FM | | 2231 | - | | | 1954 | 0 - 1 |
| 3.4 | IM | | 2323 | - | | | 1784 | - - + |
| Bo. | 10 | Chinese Taipei | Rtg | - | 4 | Penang, Malaysia | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 4.1 | | | 1746 | - | | | 2073 | ½ - ½ |
| 4.2 | | | 1956 | - | FM | | 2169 | 0 - 1 |
| 4.3 | | | 2026 | - | IM | | 2141 | 0 - 1 |
| 4.4 | | | 1743 | - | CM | | 2038 | ½ - ½ |
| Bo. | 5 | Dubai, UAE | Rtg | - | 11 | Cuttack, India | Rtg | 3 : 1 |
| 5.1 | FM | | 2016 | - | | | 1795 | ½ - ½ |
| 5.2 | IM | | 2076 | - | | | 1927 | 1 - 0 |
| 5.3 | | | 1881 | - | | | 1696 | 1 - 0 |
| 5.4 | | | 1724 | - | | | 1763 | ½ - ½ |
| Bo. | 12 | Bhubaneswar (KISS), India | Rtg | - | 6 | Kolkata, India | Rtg | 1 : 3 |
| 6.1 | | | 1698 | - | | | 1710 | 0 - 1 |
| 6.2 | | | 1691 | - | | | 2018 | 0 - 1 |
| 6.3 | | | 1448 | - | | | 2032 | 1 - 0 |
| 6.4 | | | 1738 | - | | | 1847 | 0 - 1 |
Live Games:
