Gong grabs Gold - A historic SEA Games Gold medal for Singapore!
The biennial SEA Games- sort of like an Olympic Games among the 11 South East Asian countries, is considered the 3rd most prestigious multi-sport event for Singaporeans, after the Olympics and the Asian Games. The gold medal winner of the event is typically awarded $10,000 (the national sports association typically gets a 20% cut, by the way) so you have an idea how seriously this event is taken by Singapore as a mark of sporting achievement. For Singapore, the bar for qualification is set pretty high. Those who qualified to participate had to demonstrate that they achieve results or timings (in sanctioned competitions) equivalent to the bronze medal performance of the previous SEA games.
WGM Gong Qianyun, through the strength of her 2nd placing (equal first but nudged out on tiebreak by IM Padmini Rout) at the Asian Women Continental Championships last December (Makati, Philippines 2018), got the nod to represent Singapore at the 2019 SEA Games in Philippines and she was slated to take part in the Rapid chess segment.
Seeded third behind IMs Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vietnam) and Irine Sukandar (Indonesia), she dispatched WFM Tan Li Ting (Malaysia) and Rangkaew Katunchalee (Thailand) when they relinquished pawns under her sustained pressure.
WGM Gong Qianyun overcoming Malaysia's WFM Tan Li Ting (photo credit: Peter Long)
However, in Round 3, she was visibly miffed at throwing away a likely win over WIM Catherine Secopito. "I really shouldn't have drawn this", she rued...
With Gong on the move, she erroneously chose 54...a4? throwing away a certain win when she could walk her king over to the queenside to assist the a-pawn. After Catherine's 55. Ra7! the Black king was denied that option and Gong had no way to improve her position with her rook jammed in front of her a-pawn. Giving up the a-pawn to free the rook, Gong could no longer win as the position was a theoretical draw as competently proven by Catherine subsequently.
Gong failing to make headway against Catherine (photo credit: Peter Long)
Her mood improved in Round 4 as she outplayed IM Irine Sukandar in the next round after utilizing a stunning Grischuk Grand Prix Attack pawn sacrifice idea (1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O e6 7. d4!) and the latter could not fend off the subsequent sustained attack.
The chance to close out Day 1 as the tournament leader went a-begging as Gong was upset by Indonesia's WFM Fisabilillah Ummi in Round 5.
"What a wasted chance, I should have won this one", Gong remarked as she had thrown the win with 59...d3? when 59...h5 would have released the g pawn to run home.
So after Day 1, Gong was in 2nd place with 3.5/5, half a point behind Ummi. Irine, Pham and Catherine were in hot pursuit, with 3/5 with everything to fight for.
As Irine described the tension in the air at the start of Day 2, "This tournament is 80% pressure and 20% play!". Gong added that "anything can happen in these rapid games!". However, it was the Irine and Gong show on Day 2. Both of them scythed past the field with perfect 4/4 scores. Ummi too was unbeaten on that day with 2 wins and 2 draws and hence Gong claimed Singapore's 1st SEA Games Gold Medal for chess with 7.5/9. Ummi's and Irine's 7/9 accorded them silver and bronze medals for Indonesia.
Here's how Gong saved the best for the last as she faced the top seed IM Pham in the final round.
Here's the deserving winner, WGM Gong Qianyun! (photo credit: Chris Lim)
Final tally on chess-results.com
