Asia Zone 3.3 Chess Championship 2009 Starts

Asia zone 3.3 (see zoning here) starts today. Top seeds like GM Wesley So (2646) and Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong (2613) to be fight for two ticket for this year World Cup at Khanty Masiysk . Zone 3.3 is excluding two of Asia's most powerful chess federation, China and India, and the rest of federation seems sharing equal superiority here. Chances are on the Pinoys , Vietnamese and suddenly Singapore also on the spot, thanks to the "imported" super GM. Singapore sent as many as six players and Indonesia, the 3rd largest population in Asia, sent 'only' five players.

Singapore delegation and 1st round pairing :
(afternoon updated for 1st round result)
WFM Hoang Thi Nhu Y (VIE) 2119 vs WFM Chan Wei-Yi Victoria 1912 1-0

Men:
GM Zhang Zhong 2613 vs Le Quang Long (VIE) 2279 1-0
FM Vuong Trung Hieu 1964 vs FM Chan Yi-Ren Daniel 2358 0-1
FM Chan Wei-Xuan Timothy 2344 vs Le Minh Hoang (VIE) 1941 1-0
IM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (VIE) 2500 vs FM Chua Terry 2226 1-0
IM Nguyen Thanh Son VIE 2444 vs FM Lo Kin Mun Dominic 2154 1-0


Indonesia delegation and 1st round pairing :
GM Susanto Megaranto (2534) – Baba Masahiro (JPN, 2229) 1-0

ROUND 2 updated :
FM Daniel Chan Yi-Ren vs GM Susanto Megaranto

Women:
GMW Irene Kharisma Sukandar (2311)- Daisy Rivera (PHI, 2087) 1-0
MFW Cua Shercila (PHI, 2167)- MFW Medina Warda (1945) 0-1
MFW Dewi AA Citra (1943)-Lkhamsuren Uuganbayar (MGL, 2144) 0-1
WCM Chelsie Monica bye

According to potrectcatur Megaranto and Irene are expected to grab the World Cup ticket as the rest of the lads are expected to making improvement over theirs rating. For women section only the winner go through, at the moment Irene seeded no. 4 with WGM Munguntuul Batkhuyag 2412 from Mongolia seed no.1. Irene lost to Batkhuyag at Subic months ago.

see chess result website for MEN and Women.

Pandangan catur Asia kembali ke Vietname menyusul dimulainya Kejuaraan Dunia Asia Zone 3.3. Indonesia maju dengan lima pemain (.... hmm.. Singapore yang seper sekian Indonesia 'mampu' mengirim enam pemain) dengan GM Megaranto Susanto dan WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar sebagai harapan untuk mencapai tiket ke Piala Dunia. Zone 3.3 ini tidak diikuti dua federasi super Asia lainnya , Cina dan India, jadi persaingan "tempat ketiga" di Asia cukup menegangkan, dengan Filipina dan Vietnam memiliki ambisi untuk ini. Urutan pertama GM Wesley So (sangat) diharapkan bisa lolos ke Piala Dunia karena sebagai salah satu ambasador catur Asia Tenggara akan kurang menyenangkan kalau Piala Dunia nanti tanpa kehadiraannya. Sedangkan urutan ke dua bekas GM super Zhang Zhong yang main buat Singapore sekarang, seharusnya juga membuat hasil bagus disini, mengingat pengalamannya. Namun Zhang Zhong sudah jarang bermain belakangan.