HYDERABAD: : It was a Chinese surge on the final day. GM Zhong Zhang won a marathon battle of nerves against his countrymate Hua Ni in a 90-move battle in the final round to emerge a clear winner with 7.5 points in the fifth Asian individual chess championship at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy indoor stadium here on Saturday.

For the Indians, there was greater disappointment as GM Koneru Humpy settled for a draw after another long duel lasting close to six hours in Queen's Gambit Declined variation against IM Rui Wang of China to finish with 5.5 points.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly did not try anything special and settled for a 10-move draw against GM Hai Thien Dao (Vietnam) to pick the vital half-a-point he needed to clinch the zonal quota for Indian sub-continent by being the highest-finisher.

Incidentally, none from India finished in the top 10 to book a direct slot. The lone cheer for the Indians on the final day was provided by Gujarat's 20-year-old Valay Parikh, who clinched the IM title here after holding J. Deepan Chakravarthy to a draw.

The 10 qualifiers and their final placings: 1. Zhong Zhang (Chn) 7.5 pts, 2. Shilong Li (Chn) 7 pts, 3. Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) 6.5 pts, 4. Pavel Kotsur (Kaz) 6.5 pts 5. Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz) 6.5 pts 6. Yue Wang (Chn) 6.5 pts, 7. Zhao Jun (Chn) 6 pts, 8. Hua Ni (Chn) 6 pts, 9. Hai Thien Dao (Vie) 6 pt, 10. Xu Jun (Chn) 6 pts.

The results (Indians unless specified): Final round: Hua Ni (Chn) lost to Zhong Zhang (Chn) 6-7.5; Yue Wang (Chn) drew with Shilong Li (Chn) 6.5-7; Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz) drew with Pavel Kotsur (Kaz) 6.5-6.5; Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) bt Wenjin Wu (Chn) 6.5-6; S.S. Ganguly drew with Hai Thien Dao (Vie) 6-6; Ehsan Maghami Ghaem (Iri) drew with Mohamad Al-Modiahki (Qat) 5.5-6; Hao Wang (Chn) drew with K. Sasikiran 5.5-5.5; Jun Xu (Chn) bt Jianchao Zhou (Chn) 6-5; Abhijit Kunte bt Himanshu Sharma 6-5; Jun Zhao (Chn) bt Dung Anh Ngyuyen (Vie) 6-5; Rui Wang (Chn) vs Koneru Humpy; Susanto Megaranto (Ina) bt S. Kidambi 6-5; Shaoteng Yu (Chn) drew with Al-Rakib Abdulla (Ban) 5-5.5; Ziaur Rahman (Ban) lost to Meilis Annaberdiev (Tkm) 4.5-5.5; S. Poobesh Anand lost to Neelotpal Das 4.5-5.5; Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay 5-5; R.B. Ramesh (Ind) bt Bin-Sattar Reefat (Ban) 5.5-4; Tejas Bakre bt Karen Grigoryan (Tkm) 5-4; Anton Fillipov (Uzb) lost to Abhijeet Gupta 4-5; Lanka Ravi lost to Enamul Hossain (Ban) 4-5; Orazly Annageldyev (Tkm) bt P. Konguvel 5-4; Somak Palit bt Jayson Gonzales (Phi) 5-4; J. Deepan Chakravarthy drew with Valay Parikh 4.5-4.5;

Sergey Kayumov (Uzb) bt D.P. Singh 5-4; Vishal Sareen lost to Pavel Gnusarev (Kaz) 4-5; Weiqi Zhou (Chn) lost to M.R. Venkatesh 4-5; Wendi George Zie (Aus) bt Moussa Taleb (UAE) 5-3.5; Sergei Simonenko (Tkm) lost to Sandipan Chanda 3.5-4.5; K. Dinesh Sharma bt Saidali

Iuldachev (Uzb) 4.5-3.5; Dibyendu Barua drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 4-4; Suvrajit Saha drew with B.S. Sivanandan 4-4; S. Satyapragyan drew with Weng-Yee Lim (Mas) 3.5-3.5; Arghyadip Das bt Mohsen Sharbaf (Iri) 4-3; N. Sudhakar Babu lost to R.R. Laxman 3-4; Gogineni Rohit bt Yogesh Gore 4-3; Deepsen Gupta lost to Omar Mohd Ak Hirawan (Bru) 3-4; S. Rishipal Singh drew with Dronavalli Harika 3.5-3.5; G.N. Gopal drew with Morteza Mahjoob (Iri) 3.5-3; P.D.S. Girinath bt K. Visweswaran 3.5-2.5; Dasari Sai Srinivas bt G. Lukey Stephen (Nzl) 3-5.2-5; K. Ramu drew with S.M. Prathamesh 2.5-2.5; V. Saravanan drew with J. Ramakrishna 2.5-2.5; Hira Ak Omar Pg Mohd (Bru) bye against Atanu Lahiri 25.-0.5.

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