Asian Games Semifinals Starts

India and Iran joined China and the Philippines in the Men's SF while Uzbekistan and Vietnam joined China and India in the Women's SF of the 16th Asian Games Chess Event at the Guanmgzhou Chess Institute in Guangzhou, China. Visit chess-results.com

India and Iran drew their match, Philippines beat Kyrgyzstan 2.5 - 1.5. China finished its matches with 14 match points by beating Kazhakstan. Philippines 12 & India 9 qualified directly.

There was a tie between Iran and Qatar with each finishing on 8 points. While Iran drew with India, Qatar defeated Korea 4-0 to move to 8 match points, same as Iran. Game points between the teams also tied with each scoring 17 points. Head to head count between the teams also could not be taken as both the teams did not meet each other during the seven round Swiss. The tie was resolved under the sum of Sonnenborn-Berger Points system where Iran was placed at 96.5 against Qatar's 73.5 and thus the fourth slot went to Iran to complete the Semifinalists.

China Vs Iran and India Vs Philippines will be the two semifinals on 25th and the winners will meet on 26th for the Gold Medal match.

In the women's section India and China though qualified to Semifinals with a round extra, did not spare their opponnents and went home with identical 4-0 and both finished on 13 match points. Since China were half a point ahead in games score, China and India were placed 1 and 2 in the order. Four teams were in with the chance for the remainig two slots and were paired against each other.

Uzbekistan were pitted against Vietnam, both with eight points and Iran and Bangladesh with six points were paired to play. A draw between Vietnam & Uzbekistan was enough for both the teams to move to the semifinals, but went hammer & tongs at each other, so as to avoid finishing fourth, as that would have meant meeting the lion at its den, that is China. But the ice could not be broken and all four boards ended in draws with Vietnam finishing fourth.

The semifinal line up would be China Vs Vietnam and India Vs Uzbekistan in the women's section.

There was some drama at the start of seventh round in the women's section as the start time was postponed by two hours as Uzbekistan needed clarification on the pairings published for the last round. The confusion was resolved with the organising committee official also taking part in the delibrations and the rounds started without altering the pairings.

Ranking of teams after the seventh and last round : Men
1. China(14), 2. Philippines(12), 3. India(9), 4 to 7. Iran, Qatar, Vietnam & Uzbekistan (all on 8), 8 & 9. Kyrgystan & Iraq (7), 10 to 13. Bangladesh, Kazakistan, Mongolia & Yemen (all on 6), 14. Korea(4), 15 & 16. Maldives, Jordan(3) & 17th Lebanon(1).

1 & 2. China & India(13), 3&4. Uzbekistan, Vietnam(9), 5. Iran(8), 6. Mongolia(7), 7 to 9. Bangladesh, Qatar & Syria, 10. Turkmenistan(5), 11. Korea(2) & 12. Jordan(0),

The Games are shown live on www.asia-chess.com

Media Team

ag_korteams

The young Korean teams.