Asian Games

(RUSTICBULL's NOTE: I really enjoyed these annotations by Sir Bobby. Watch the two annotated games below and find out why.)

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 06 December 2010)

16th Asian Games Team Championship Guangzhou (Canton), China November 18-26, 2010

Preliminary Round
1. China +7 =0 -0, 14 pts
2. Philippines +6 =0 -1, 12 pts
3. India +4 =1 -2, 9 pts
4. Iran +3 =2 -2, 8 pts
Total of 17 countries

Semi-Finals:
China vs Iran, 2.5-1.5 Philippines vs India, 2.5-1.5

Finals:
China vs Philippines, 3.5-0.5 India vs Iran, 3.5-0.5

Final Standings:
Gold medal: China
Silver medal: Philippines
Bronze medal: India

The most spectacular game from the event was won by India’s Harikrishna against Wesley So.

Harikrishna,Penteala (2657) -- So,Wesley (2669)
[D76] 16th Asian Games Team Final Men
Guangzhou CHN (1), 25.11.2010
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Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem is the next Asian who is knocking on the door of the stratospheric ELO 2700 barrier. He won the super-strong 2010 Aeroflot Open and performed quite creditably in Dortmund, 2nd place to Ponomariov but ahead of Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Naiditsch and Leko. He will probably never come back to Guangzhou, though, as this was one of his worst performances. He did not win a single game, drew one (vs GM Ghaem Maghami) and lost four (GMs Kasimdzhanov, Wang Yue, Kazhgaleyev and, surprisingly, the untitled Algis Shukuraliev of Kyzgyzstan, all of 2376).

In the following game China’s Wang Yue, one of the most boring players around, suddenly gets inspired and attacks him like crazy.

Wang Yue (2756) -- Le Quang Liem (2689)
[A15] 16th Asian Games Team Men
Guangzhou CHN (3), 20.11.2010
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Black resigns as there is no perpetual after 37...Qh5+ 38.Bh4.
Wang Yue only won this one game in the tournament, drawing five games and losing none. After this nice victory he probably felt, to borrow a term from blackjack, that he is already "good."