Salem, Ishaq impress in Asian chess

Al Ain - Salem used the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defence to crush International Master S. Nitin of India.

Local chess stars, Grandmaster Saleh A.R. Salem and Fide Master Saeed Ishaq, registered stunning victories on the opening day of the $87,000 Asian Continental Chess Championships at the Hilton Hotel in Al Ain, UAE.
The top five advance to the Chess World Cup next month in Baku, Azerbaijan. The women's champion will represent Asia in the Fide Women's World Championship.
Salem qualified for the World Cup from last year's Asian Continental. The top two seeds from Vietnam, namely GM Le Quang Liem, rated 2669, and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, rated 2662, have also qualified from the Southeas Asian Zonal. Also qualified from their respective Zonal tournaments are GM S. P. Sethuraman of India, Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh. GM Idani Pouya of Iran qualified from the Middle East Zone. Should any of these pre-qualified players make it to the top five, the next in line qualifies to the World Cup.
Salem used the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defence to crush International Master S. Nitin of India. The local ace used his opposite colored Bishop and threatened his opponent's weak back rank. Salem stunned his opponent with a Queen sacrifice on the 31st move to force resignation on the next move.
Not to be outdone, compatriot Saeed Ishaq followed suit with a Queen sacrifice on the 24th move against the Slav defense of GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of Vietnam threatening mate two moves later.
Top seed GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam was held to a draw by 22-year-old IM Haridas Pascua of the Philippines. The young Filipino went on the attack with a kingside pawn storm against the Dutch defense of his seasoned opponent and seized the draw after 35 moves of an opposite colored Bishop endgame.
GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi led the onslaught by the 19-man Indian delegation with a victory over GM Enamul Hosain of Bangladesh as other Indian GMs also scored opening round wins. GM Krishnan Sasikiran beat GM Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan, GM S.P.Sethuraman won over compatriot P. Karthikeyan, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly defeated GM Dashzegve Sharavdorj of Mongolia, K. Rathnakaran beat GM Zhang Zhong of Singapore, GM Deep Sengupta won over IM Zhanat Saiyn of Kazakhstan, GM Chanda Sandipan beat FM Semetey Tologontegin of Kyrgyzstan, GM Lalith Babu outplayed FM Li Di of China, GM Vishnu Prasanna outmatched FM Abdulwahab Ahmed Abdulstarrar of Iraq, GM Abhijeet Gupta beat Mamyrbay Assad of Kazakhstan and IM SL Narayanan smashed Nassar Marwan of Lebanon.
GM Gao Rui led the 13-man Chinese delegation, beating the French defence of compatriot Yuan Qingyu in 33 moves. IM Wang Chen smashed the Sicilian defense of compatriot IM Chu Wei Chao in 45 moves. IM Lin Chen beat Candidate Master Hajiri Bader of Kuwait. Xu Yinglun outplayed Ezizov Jumamuhammet of Turkmenistan and IM Lou Yiping beat Mohammed Bukhari of Saudi Arabia.
The Chinese were stronger in the women's division as top seed WGM Tan Zhongyi beat Le Kieu Thien Kim of Vietnam. Among the other leading Chinese women, IM Shen Yang beat Ghazal Hakimifard of Iran, WIM Zhai Mo defeated Akter Liza Shamima of Bangladesh, WGM Zhang Xiaowen beat compatriot Chu Ruotong and WGM Wang Jue defeated compatriot Liu Manli.
Second seed WGM Padmini Rout of India kept pace by beating WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam. Mongolian Sengeravdan Otongjargal also won against Lei Tingjie of China. Other first round winners were Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, Mitra Hejaziour, Raana Hakimifar and Atousa Pourkashiyan (all from Iran), Aulia Medina Warda of Indonesia, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Pham Le Thao Nguyen of Vietnam, Dinara Saduakassova and Medina Davletbayeva of Kazakhstan, Aseel Faqeeh of Palestine, Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva of Uzbekistan. Eesha Karavade, Subbaraman Vijaylakshmi, Bhakti Kulkarni, Nisha Mohota, Soumya Swaminathan and Mary Ann Gomes from India also won.
Meanwhile, newcomer Houd Alhouti of Oman was banned for bringing his mobile phone during the game.