GM Zhang Zhong is Asian Chess Champion!

Reading this title I have to remember lawyer from Kladovo (last name Trajkovic or similar) and his words "I let Cang Cong get away with it!". It was few years back when Chinese juniors were guests of Serbia and Montenegro Chess Federation. One of their bases was Kladovo, where they have played number of blitz marathons against the hosts.

Anyway, back to the topic. The 5th Asian Individual Championship was played in Hyderabad, India, on October 6th-15th 2005. Zhang Zhong won this tournament after he battled 90 moves for a victory against his country-man GM Ni Hua. Top 10 finishers have qualified for the World Cup coming up at Russia next month. Six of them are Chinese, none from India - top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND 2663) finished 23rd. Chinese prodigy Wang Hao (CHN 2519) finished 16th with 5,5 points.


Top 10 finishers:
1. GM Zhang Zhong (CHN 2598) with 7,5 points out of 9 rounds
2. GM Li Shilong (CHN 2510) 7
3-6. GM Darmen Sadvakasov (KAZ 2612), GM Pavel Kotsur (KAZ 2587). GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev (KAZ 2602) and GM Wang Yue (CHN 2585) 6,5
7-15. GM Zhao Jun (CHN 2500), GM Ni Hua (CHN 2603), GM Dao Thien Hai (VIE 2581) and GM Xu Jun (CHN 2582) etc with 6 points


Wang Hao (2519) - Enamul Hossian (2476)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bd3 Qb6 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.0-0 Qb8 9.Re1 d6 10.Bf4 Ne5 11.Bg3 Nf6 12.Nxe5 dxe5 13.a4 bxa4 14.Rxa4 Nd7 15.Qa1 Qb6 16.Rc4 Bd6 17.Nb5 0-0 18.Nxd6 Qxd6 19.Rd1 f6 20.Bf1 Qb8 21.b4 Nb6 22.Rc6 Bd7 23.Rxb6 Qxb6 24.Rxd7 Qxb4 25.Qa2 a5 26.Qxe6+ Kh8 27.h4 Rfd8 28.Re7 Qe1 29.h5 h6 30.Bh4 Rf8 31.Qg4 Rg8 32.Bxf6 1-0

Koneru Humpy (2540) - Ni Hua (2603)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Qc2 c5 5.d5 b5 6.e4 bxc4 7.Bxc4 d6 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nc3 Nbd7 10.Re1 Qa5 11.Bd2 Ng4 12.Bf1 Nge5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Na4 Qd8 15.Bc3 g5 16.b3 h6 17.Nb2 e6 18.dxe6 fxe6 19.Rad1 Qe7 20.Nc4 Nxc4 21.Bxc4 Bb7 22.b4 cxb4 23.Bxb4 Be5 24.Qb3 Rfe8 25.Qa3 Rec8 26.Qb3 Re8 27.Re2 a5 28.Bc3 Bxc3 29.Qxc3 Ba6 30.Bxa6 Rxa6 31.Qd3 Raa8 32.Red2 Rad8 33.Qa3 Qc7 34.h4 gxh4 35.Rxd6 Rxd6 36.Rxd6 Qg7 37.Qxa5 h3 38.g3 Qa1+ 39.Kh2 Qf1 0-1