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China 6, Kazakhstan 3, Vietnam 1
 Zhang Zhong of China won the 5th Asian Championship at Hyderabad scoring a marathon 90-move victory over his countryman Ni Hua with the black pieces. Zhang Zhong surprised everyone by playing on and winning the game when they were expected to make a quick draw and ensure a place in the World Cup coming up at Russia next month.
None of the Indians managed to finish in the top ten and that was a blow for the hosts. However, Surya Shekhar Ganguly qualified to play in the World Cup by becoming the highest finisher among the zones comprising the Indian sub-continent. He will join two seeded players - Viswanathan Anand and Pentala
Harikrishna.
Besides none of our players not making the top ten grade India had other setbacks in the final day. Sundararajan Kidambi who was required to draw for his grandmaster norm, played the Berlin defence of the Ruy Lopez with the black pieces and went down to Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia. The other player who failed to make the grandmaster norm was Himanshu Sharma. He was required to defeat Kunte but he was soundly defeated.
Chinese played well and deserved to pick up most of the slots from this event. Indians not making even one should be hurting our players who have done so well in the recent past. Among those who made the mark with last round victories was Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan who trapped the queen of Wu Wenjin of China to qualify.
The second and third boards saw quick draw between the two Chinese and two Kazakh players. It was a typical cool day expect for Humpy's long battle. She held Wang Rui to a draw after 149 moves with a lone rook against a rook and knight.
China picked up a lion's share of the qualifying seats sending six to the World Cup followed by Kazakhstan 3 and Vietnam 1. Sasikiran was not in form and India failed.
Qualifiers: 1 Zhang Zhong (Chn)
7.5/9, 2 Li Shilong (Chn) 7, 3-6 Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz), Pavel Kotsur
(Kaz), Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz), Wang Yue (Chn) 6.5 each, 7-10
Zhao Jun (Chn), Ni Hua (Chn), Dao Thien Hai (Vie), Xu Jun (Chn) 6 each. Indians on 6 points:
S.S.Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte.
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