Abu Dhabi: The Asian Nations Cup Chess Championship makes its first move at 3pm on Monday at the Novotel Abu Dhabi Al Bustan hotel with 20 countries competing for the right to represent Asia in the World Chess Team Championship.
This was announced at a press conference by the Organizing Committee chairman Dr Rashed Al Dhaheri and UAE Chess Federation president Dr Saeed Al Megbali.
The tournament will be held in the men and women’s divisions in three categories of standard, rapid and blitz chess. Top seed China, with average rating of 2694, is the defending champion in both men’s and women’s divisions, having scored double victories in the previous two editions in China in 2012 and in Iran in 2014. Strong challenge is expected from second seed India, with average rating of 2652, the previous Olympiad bronze medallist.
Other participating countries, in order of average rating are Vietnam (2574), Kazakhstan (2558), Iran (2504), Qatar (2478), Bangladesh (2447), Mongolia (2440), Uzbekistan (2424), UAE-1 (2394), Iraq (2271), Kyrgyzstan (2287), Lebanon (2236), Jordan (2074), Oman (2070), Sri Lanka (2060), Afghanistan (2041), Palestine (1967), UAE-2 (1951), Nepal (1890) and Tajikistan (1593).
Women’s teams are from China (2521), India (2427), Mongolia (2395), Kazakhstan (2339), Iran (2317), Vietnam (2287), Uzbekistan (2258), Iraq (1834), UAE-1 (1764), Sri Lanka (1736) and UAE-2 (1621).
The standard competition will be played as a Swiss System of nine rounds for the men. Games start 3pm daily with live broadcast at www.asianchess.com. The rapid and blitz championships will be conducted in a five-round Swiss as qualification to choose four teams to play in knock out semi-final and final.
The tournament is organised by the UAE Chess Federation under the auspices of the UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs , Abu Dhabi Sports Council and Asian Chess Federation.
