GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam and WGM Tan Zhongyi of China won the gold medals in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively, of the Asian Rapid Chess Championship at the Hilton Hotel in Al Ain. Silver and bronze medals went to Indians in both divisions of this form of speed chess.

Truong Son finished undefeated alone with 6 points out of 7 rounds. He beat IM P. Karthikeyan and GM Chanda Sandipan of India, GM Idani Pouya of Iran, GM Gao Rui of China, GM Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan and drew with compatriot top seed GM Le Quang Liem.

Rapid chess is played with 15 minutes plus 10 second increment per move for each player. Games last an hour compared with the usual six hours for standard chess. The faster time control relies more on instinctive talent.

Six players followed with 5.5 points each, namely GM Chanda Sandipan, Debashish Das and Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India, IM Lin Chen of China, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and Le Quang Liem.

Sandipan won the silver medal by tie break of higher average rating of opponents. He started with a loss against IM Nezad Husein Aziz of Qatar but won four straight games against IM S. Nitin of India, IM Lou Yiping of China, GM Mohammed Al Sayed of Qatar and GM Lalith Babu of India before losing to Truong Son. Sandipan’s last round was a draw with GM Zhou Jianchou of China.

Debashis Das got the bronze also after starting with a loss, against Liu Chang of China, but he rebounded with four straight wins against Bader Al Hajiri of Kuwait, IM Haridas Pascua of the Philippines, GM M.R. Venkatesh of India, FM Li Di of China. Das drew with IM Lin Chen of China before finishing with a win against GM Jahongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan. In the women’s division, Tan won the gold medal with 6 points in a tie with India IM Tania Sachdev who got silver. Tan won the tie break by higher average rating of opponents. Harika and WGM Wang Jue of China finished with 5.5 points each but the Indian beat the Chinese in their encounter to win the tie break and the bronze medal.

Live running commentary by GM Tahir Vakhidov and WGM Zhang Jilin is available on youtube. Top boards are broadcast live for Men and Women, and are available for download in the official site asianchess.com with pairings in chess-results.com and photo galleries on facebook and instagram.

The event is organized by the Asian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and UAE Chess Federation. The Asian Blitz chess championship follows the Rapid event with a total of $12,000 in cash prizes.