Asian Teams Chess Championship 2009

Team Chess Championship in Kolkata, India

The Asian team chess championship is starting in Kolkata, India, wiith the participation of 93 players from Vietnam, India, Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Singapore, Yemen, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Men section: 49 players of which 19 Grandmasters

Women Section: 44 players of which 10 Women grandmasters

The top seeded team in the men section is India A, led by GM Harikrishna and GM Sasikiran, while the top women team is again from India, led by IM Harika Dronavalli. Scroll down for full participant lists.

The opening of Asia teams chess

Yet another steel company after Corus is sponsoring a major chess competition. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Tata Steel Asian Chess Championship by making a symbolic move on a chess board at the Hotel Hindustan International on Sunday. The finance minister also unveiled the champion’s trophies of this premier Asian team championship which is organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy & All Sport Management and will be held at the historic Town Hall. Speaking on the occasion, Pranab Mukherjee said, “ Chess is a game of intellect, patience and farsightedness. It is not important who wins the trophy, it is the participants spirit that prevails.” He wished all the participating counties a memorable stay in Kolkata “ I am sure the participants will take back happy memories of the city, and a part of India…” he further added.

Aslo present on the occasion, were the Mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the leader of the CLP Manas Bhuinya, Sanjay Choudhury, Chief, Corporate Communications, Tata Steel, D.V. Sundar , Hony Secretary of All India Chess Federation and Ravindra Dongre, Vice-President of AICF.

D.V. Sundar praised the efforts of Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and All Sport

Management in organising this Mega event.”Dibyendu Barua is the pride not only of Bengal, but also of India. Barua has served India as a chess player and has ventured into organisation. I am sure he will find greater obstacles as an organiser than he must have had as a player, ” said Sundar in lighter vein.

Schedule change

The championship scheduled to start on December 21, has been postponed by a day due to the late arrival of Bangladesh and Lanka teams. The Bangladesh captain, Niaz Murshed, however, arrived in the city earlier in the evening and attended the captains meeting. In the captains meeting held late in the evening it was agreed by all the teams that the tournament would start from Tuesday, December 22.

It was also decided in the captains meeting that no player can agree to a draw before 30 moves. The games will start from 2 p.m everyday.The time limit for each game will be 40 moves in the first one and half hours followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game. In addition there would be 30 seconds increment for each move.

India A teams start as the favourite in both the men’s and women’s sections in this 7 round Swiss league championship which will continue till December 28. As the host country, India will be fielding 2 teams in each category.

Participants men section

1. INDIA A (RtgAvg:2653)

1 GM Harikrishna P 2672 IND
2 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2664 IND
3 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2654 IND
4 GM Negi Parimarjan 2620 IND
5 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2518 IND

2. VIETNAM (RtgAvg:2563)

1 GM Le Quang Liem 2624 VIE
2 GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2616 VIE
3 GM Bui Vinh 2488 VIE
4 GM Dao Thien Hai 2524 VIE
5 GM Nguyen Anh Dung 2447 VIE

3. IRAN (RtgAvg:2532)

1 GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan 2603 IRI
2 GM Moradiabadi Elshan 2560 IRI
3 GM Mahjoob Morteza 2510 IRI
4 GM Bagheri Amir 2410 IRI
5 IM Toufighi Homayoon 2454 IRI

4. INDIA B (RtgAvg:2491)

1 IM Adhiban B 2486 IND
2 IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2480 IND
3 GM Laxman R R 2511 IND
4 IM Sengupta Deep 2488 IND
5 IM Himanshu Sharma 2469 IND

5. INDONESIA (RtgAvg:2382)

1 GM Megaranto Susanto 2522 INA
2 IM Purnama Tirta Chandra 2417 INA
3 FM Novita Anjas 2340 INA
4 Kaisar Jenius Hakiki 2227 INA
5 CM Farid Firman Syah 2249 INA

6. BANGLADESH (RtgAvg:2354)

1 GM Rahman Ziaur 2545 BAN
2 GM Murshed Niaz 2409 BAN
3 Md Jamal Uddin 2150 BAN
4 FM Mohammed Abdul Malek 2290 BAN
5 Ahmed Mahtabuddin 2171 BAN

7. SINGAPORE (RtgAvg:2263)

1 GM Wu Shaobin 2454 SIN
2 FM Chua Zheng Yuan Terry 2256 SIN
3 FM Lo Kin Mun Dominic 2174 SIN
4 Tan Weiliang 2168 SIN

8. YEMEN (RtgAvg:2217)

1 Abdullah Sonbul 0 YEM
2 FM Fouad Mofleh 2199 YEM
3 FM Faraj Yahya 2280 YEM
4 Al-Aqrabi Saleh 2201 YEM
5 CM Abdul Moula Sabri 2189 YEM

9. SRILANKA (RtgAvg:2130)

1 Hapuarachchi H L M 2019 SRI
2 Edirisinghe Dulan 2137 SRI
3 Kalugampitiya R S 2135 SRI
4 Anuruddha G C 2158 SRI
5 Wijesuriya G Luxman 2089 SRI

10. NEPAL (RtgAvg:2019)

1 Mahato Rajkishor 1994 NEP
2 Karmacharya Punya Man 2015 NEP
3 Pandey Sajan 0 NEP
4 Shrestha Rajendra Prasad 1982 NEP
5 Shrestha Sujendra Prasad 2084 NEP