Final Round: India and Vietnam are Asian Champions!

The Tata Steel Asian Team Chess Championship concluded today in a final round that was little more than a coronation for men's champion India  and women's champion Vietnam, but saw a fierce fight between both the men and women of Iran and India B to decide the event's second and third placings.


Men

The final round started with India A making short work of Sri Lanka, easily winning 4-0, but in the second match a grim struggle between Ian and India B finally ended with Iran winning 3-1, ensuring that Iran would tie Vietnam for second but only placed third after tie-breaks.

(A very happy India A side at the post event live press conference being interviewed by Grandmaster P.Thipsay.).

Already assured of second place, Vietnam had a routine 4-0 win against bottom placed Nepal while Bangladesh hit form to crush Singapore 3.5-0.5 and Indonesia beat Yemen by the same score.

Individual Board Medals: 1. Le Quang Liem (VIE), 2. Sasikiran Krishnan (IND), 3. Ganguly Surya Shekhar (IND), 4. Negi Parimarjan (IND), 5. Nguyen Anh Dung (VIE).


Women

Vietnam made sure of the title with a quick win 4-0 over bottom placed Nepal as second placed India A sat out proceedings with the 2-0 bye.

(An equally happy Vietnam team at the live press conference. You do not need to speak Hindi or English well to express hapiness!).

India B then had a chance to win second place but fell to Iran 1-3 and that meant third place would be shared between these two teams and the tier-break went in Iran's favour.

Of the remaining matches, Indonesia was surprised by Singapore 1.5-2.5 and Sri Lanka well beaten 1-3 by Bangladesh.

Individual Board Medals: 1. Harika Dronavalli (IND), 2. Paridar Shadi (IRN), 3. Nguyen Thi Thanh An (VIE), 4. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (VIE), 5. Hoang Thi Nhu Y (VIE)