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Vietnam's Truong Son triumphs

Dubai - Zhongyi edges Tania to win gold in women's rapid chess championship

It was the turn of the new stars to shine at the Asian Continental Chess Championships after the UAE's Saleh AR Salem triumphed in the men's Open event on Monday.
Vietnamese Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Women's Grandmaster Tan Zhongyi of China won gold in the men's and women's divisions, respectively, in the rapid championship at the Hilton Hotel in Al Ain, on Tuesday night. The Silver and bronze medals went to Indian players in both divisions of this form of speed chess.
Truong Son finished undefeated alone with six points out of seven 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 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.
The event is organised 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.