Thursday, March 08, 2007

Kazakhs Lead Asian Cities

The Kazakhstan team of Pavlodar continues to lead from RP team Tagaytay City in the ongoing Asian Cities Championships in Iran. Tagaytay actually beat their Kazakh opposition in round 4 with a 2.5-1.5 margin thanks to IM Wesley So's victory over GM Petr Kostenko (2522).

Tagaytay's cause hasn't been helped by a number of accidents. As early as round 2, the GM duo of Paragua and Antonio could pull off only draws against their FM opponents of the local Rahahan team. And in round 6 Paragua dropped an important point to IM Imad Hakki. Most unexpectedly, however, was Wesley So's loss to the 2265-rated M.B. Muralidharan from Calicut.

At the seventh round mark, Pavlodar has amassed 22 game points, Tagaytay has 19.5, Saipa (Iran) is on 18 points. Complete tables are available here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Australia has competed in the Asian cities competition before,although it was many moons ago.

Is Australia still able to enter a city team in this competition or have they changed the rules,Amiel?

The Closet Grandmaster said...

Yes, Australia can enter a team. the regulations published (in word document) by the Iranian hosts reads: "The Asian Cities Team Championship is open to all affiliated chess federations in Zones 3.1 to 3.6".

I must admit I'm not entirely current with which nations are in which zones but I believe we're now in 3.6.

- TCG

Anonymous said...

Sydney played in the Asian Cities in Manila in 2004 but chose not to go to Tehran this time!

Anonymous said...

Yes,you might get a feisty welcome from Iranian government officials today.

I have no doubt the Iranian chess officials and players would be very hospitable,but local religious groups might want to exploit australian players presence there.

Amiel,is this tournament held every year or biennially?

And has the next host city been chosen already?