Surya Sekhar logged 6 points

Hyderabad: Bengal’s Surya Sekhar Ganguly qualified for the ensuing World Cup to be held in Russia after finishing 13th in the Asian Chess Championship, even as a loss in the ninth and final round forced S. Kidambi to miss his Grandmaster norm at the KVBR Indoor Stadium here on Saturday. The title went to Zhang Zhong of China.

Kidambi, a strong contender for the GM norm, lost to Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia in the Ruy Lopez opening and ended up with five points.

Neelotpal Das defeated fellow-Indian Poobesh Anand to log 5.5 points.

Meanwhile, Surya Sekhar was selected as the 11th player behind top 10 finishers including six Chinese, three Kazakhstan and one Vietnamese.

“Since zonals were not held in this region, one player from India or Bangladesh will be eligible to play in the World Cup and Surya Sekhar made the cut with 6 points,” tournament director Venkatnaraman said.

Apart from him, World No.2 Viswanathan Anand and World Junior Champion P. Harikrishna are the direct entries from India.

On the top board, Zhang Zhong defeated Ni Hua in a marathon 90-move game where the champion adopted French Defence to put up sustained pressure on his opponent, who faltered in the final stages to give Zhang 7.5 points and the title.

Koneru Humpy played the longest game of the meet comprising 180 moves and signed peace with Rui Wang of China in a rook-knight versus rook ending game which started in the Queen’s Gambit declined variation.

Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran split point with Hao Wang of China in a Ruy Lopez game, while Abhijit Kunte foiled the gameplan of Himanshu Sharma who declined the Queen’s Gambit and lost the battle.

R. B. Ramesh logged 5.5 points defeating Reefat Bin-Sattar (Bangladesh), Tejas Bakre beat Karen Grigoryan to notch five points, Palit Somak defeated Jayson Gonzales (Philippines) to win five points.

TOP 10 QUALIFIERS

Zhang Zhong (Chn) 7.5; Li Shilong (Chn) 7; Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz), Pavel Kotsur (Kaz), Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz), Yue Wang (Chn), Zhao Jun (Chn), Ni Hua (Chn), Dao Thien Hai (Vie) and Xu Jun (Chn) 6.5.