Teenage sensation Daneshvar heralds ‘new era’ for Iranian chess
Bardia Daneshvar’s historic crown at the Asian Individual Chess Championships marked the beginning of a “new era” for the sport in Iran, Shadi Paridar, the head of the Iranian Chess Federation, said.
“This is an unprecedented achievement in the past hundred years – one that even the golden generation of the Iranian chess couldn’t accomplish,” Paridar, a FIDE woman grandmaster, told IRNA.
Daneshvar, 19, collected seven points to finish atop the men’s Open standings of the nine-round Swiss tournament in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates, last week.
“The tournament was called off last year, so all of the top contenders in Asian took part at the event to secure qualification for this year’s Chess World Cup. Chess in Asia is now at an elite level, and China, India, and Uzbekistan are among the global powerhouses of the sport,” added Paridar.
“Bardia needs more support and his great achievement deserves recognition, as it brought Iran’s century-long drought at the Asian competitions to an end.”
It was a tight race until Round 6, when 12th-seed Daneshvar seized the lead and never looked back. After a crucial victory over Abhimanyu Puranik of India in the penultimate round, he entered the final round with a score of 7/8, a full point ahead of his nearest rivals in the table.
Despite losing in the final round to top seed Indian Nihal Sarin, finished level on seven points with Daneshvar, the Iranian grandmaster walked away with the ultimate prize thanks to the superior average rating of his opponents. Sarin settled for the silver, while Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan secured the bronze, edging out five players (all with 6.5/9) on tiebreaks.
The event in Al Ain bringing together over 250 male and female players from 38 countries.