The Grand Asian Chess Challenge 2018

by Gajanand Jayade - 22/01/2018

The Grand Asian Chess Challenge (GACC) 2018 is being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the Malaya University. The inter-university tournament will begin from the 22nd of January. Before that there was a six-round rapid event held at the same venue. India's Gajanan Jayade is playing the tournament and sends us a brief report. He writes to us, "The GACC is a great example of how a few youngsters can organize a prestigious event and manage around 500+ people." Report from Malaysia:

Before the start of the main event of Grand Asian Chess Challenge (GACC) 2018 there was a six-round rapid event held on 20th of January 2018. Total 152 players participants in the open section of the tournament out of which 6 players were titled.

The venue of the tournament: Dewan Tunku Cancelor.

This is the oldest building in the university of Malaya. There's a pretty good story behind this look of the building. Some years ago the structure had caught a fire and it almost destroyed 70% of the building. The authorities wanted people to know that this is the oldest building hence after the fire incident it was not fully repaired. Hence you can see the dark burnt places at many places.

The spacious playing hall. As you can see there is a special seating arrangement in the 'balcony' area for parents. This way the parents can see their children playing without disturbing or distracting anyone's attention.

The Dewan Tunku Cancelor building has a pond at the entrance.

The Signature board in the shape of a knight

I pretty much liked the idea of a signature board. There were pieces of paper provided to players with a number on it. The players are supposed to sign the paper and stick it on the board where the number is mentioned. When everyone was finished sticking their pieces of paper we got the knight! Pretty amazing isn't it?!

That's how you do it!

The stall where you can buy chess related accessories and more!

Always nice to have some food refreshments at your disposal

The rapid tournament was won by Oliver Dimakiling. He was tied at the top score of 6.0/6 along with IM Haridas Pascua, but took the title on a superior tiebreak score.

Final rankings after 6 rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2467	6,0	0,0	24,0	21,0
2	2	IM	Haridas Pascua	PHI	2377	6,0	0,0	22,0	21,0
3	58		Poh Yu Tian	MAS	1153	5,5	0,0	23,5	18,5
4	8	FM	Ismail Ahmad	MAS	2012	5,0	0,0	25,5	18,0
5	6		M. Kahfi Maulana	INA	2150	5,0	0,0	24,5	19,0
6	5		Stewart Manaog	PHI	2153	5,0	0,0	24,0	19,0
7	10		Azhar Muhd Syakir Shazmeer	MAS	2001	5,0	0,0	23,0	18,0
8	4		Capel Evan Timothy	MAS	2168	5,0	0,0	22,0	20,0
9	13	WFM	Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada	MAS	1859	5,0	0,0	22,0	16,5
10	9		Tan Francis	MAS	2012	5,0	0,0	17,5	18,0
11	3	IM	Senador Emmanuel	PHI	2358	4,5	0,0	24,0	18,0
12	20		Chen Meng Boon Marcus	SGP	1760	4,5	0,0	22,5	17,5
13	15		Lieu Chin Yung	MAS	1807	4,5	0,0	22,0	17,0
14	11		Cheah Cheok Fung	MAS	1969	4,5	0,0	22,0	17,0
15	16		Gajanan Vijay Jayade	IND	1788	4,5	0,0	22,0	14,5
16	12		Azhar Muhd Irfan Haqqim	MAS	1865	4,5	0,0	21,5	18,0
17	73		Awang Putra Sembada R	INA	0	4,5	0,0	21,5	16,5
18	55		Ng Jun Fung Isaac	MAS	1241	4,5	0,0	21,5	15,5
19	7	WFM	Farah Yumna B.	INA	2040	4,5	0,0	21,5	14,0
20	71		Anna Wening Rahajeng	INA	0	4,5	0,0	21,0	15,5

The main team event - Inter-Varsity Championship begins from the 22nd of January and you can expect coverage of that event as well on ChessBase India.

About the author:

Gajanan Jayade is a chess player from Dombivli, Mumbai. He is an aspiring chemist, reader, loves to watch detective thriller movies and an introvert. He loves to share his experiences with the world - one of the reasons why he wrote this article on ChessBase India.