Indian men won the Asian Nations Cup Chess tournament with a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in the final round as they pushed formidable China down to second place. India collected 17 points, two more than World and Olympiad champions China, to clinch the title. Top seed China beat UAE 4-0 in their final round match. Kazakhstan and Iran took the third and fourth places respectively.
India drew Mongolia and beat the rest of the teams in a 22-team nine round Swiss on four boards with one reserve. In the final round match against Vietnam, Grandmasters S P Sethuraman and K Sasikiran won on the second and fourth boards while GMs B Adhiban and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi drew their respective matches on top and third boards.
This was the third time that Indian men won the event. They won at Esfahan, Iran in 2005 and Kolkata 2009 previously when China did not participate on both occasions. Therefore, this victory over China was something which will be remembered for long.
In the women’s section, top seed China won the title with 15 points. Uzbekistan were second with 14 and Kazakhstan third with 13 points. Seeded second in the tournament, Indian women finished fourth with 12 points after drawing Iran in their final round match.
Did You Know?
- Viswanathan Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988.
- He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002.
- He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008.
- He then defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in the World Chess Championship 2012 against Boris Gelfand.
- In the World Chess Championship 2013 he lost to challenger Magnus Carlsen and he lost again to Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2014.
- In April 2006 Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov.
- He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India’s highest sporting honour.
- In 2007, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sports person to receive the award.
