Club India Win All Three Matches

By Arvind Aaron
 

Indian Internationan Masters only started as seventh seed in the Asian Club Cup Chess Championship at Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates on Dec 27. Yet, they won all three matches, 4-0, 4-0 and 3-1 to be in all-win score along with three other teams. In the third round, all-IM team from India crushed an all-GM team from Iran! Club India is leading with full three wins along with one team from China, one from Philippines and host team Al-Ain Chess Club.

In the third round, Club India represented by R.R. Laxman, Deep Sengupta, Karthikeyan, Prathamesh Mokal and S. Nitin shocked an all-GM team from Fajr Chess Club, Iran by 3-1. On the top board, Laxman beat GM Mikhail Kobalia of Russia and on the third board, P. Karthikeyan won against GM Tigran Petrosian of Armenia. Deep and Mokal drew with white against higher rated GM opponents. Nitin was rested in round three.

In the earlier rounds, Club India crushed Club of Sri Lanka and Club of Yemen 4-0 respectively to be among the leaders. Al-Ain Chess Club is also among the leaders. They have an all-GM team with an average rating of Elo 2665. GMs Sergey Karjakin, GM Effimenko (both Ukr), GM Baadur Jobava (Geo), GM Li Chao (Chn) and the best player of the Dresden Olympiad GM Gabriel Sargissian (Arm).

There are 30 teams in this five a side four player team tournament. There are seven rounds and the prize fund is USD 60,000. There are 30 GMs present in Al-Ain in this maiden championship. Most Asian nations are likely to hold club championships in the coming years to select their teams for this event. Many teams from Philippines and China have fielded all-GM teams.


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Home                                                  Published on 30^th December,  2008