Dubai Open: Five players share first with 7.0/9

14th Dubai Open Chess Championship

Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup

This event took place from April 15th-23rd at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club, which is the most modern and biggest dedicated chess club in the world. Its players constitute the ‘backbone” of the UAE national team, and as a matter of fact those players have achieved outstanding successes on all levels.

In round eight Sandipan Chanda defeated his compatriot Parimarjan Negi to join Latvian GM Normunds Miezis in the lead, with 6.5/8 points. Wins by Baadur Jobaba, Loek van Wely, Robert Hovhannisyan, Tigran Petrossian and Surya Ganguly allowed these players to join Abhijeet Gupta, Yuriy Kuzubov, Vladimir Akopian, Ni Hua, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, Zaven Andriasian and Mikheil Mchedlishvili in the follow-up group, half a point behind the leaders.

In round nine Ganguly and van Wely lost their games, against Jobava and Mchedlishvili respectively. Chinese GM Ni Hua defeated Yuriy Kuzubov from Ukraine, and after the dust had cleared we found five players with 7.0/9 points in first place. Ni Hua had the best tiebreak and a performance of 2770, compared to his co-leaders Jobava at 2766, Mchedlishvili at 2731, Chanda at 2727 and Miezis at 2709. Other tiebreak criteria sorted the official final table as follows:

Final standings (after nine rounds)

Final round decider: Normunds Miezis vs Sandipan Chanda, both with 6½/8 – draw

An important all-India summit in round eight: White won and went into the lead

An important game from round nine, which was won by Georgian GM Mchedlishvili

Arbiters watch the game GM Amin Bassem, Egypt, vs Ebrahim Ahmadinia, Iran

GM Vladimir Baklan, 2612, vs IM Tania Sachdev, 2414 in round nine (White won)

WIM Maria Blanco Acevedo of Venezuela, rated 2120, finished at 4.0/9

WCM Ana-Maria Ursu of Moldova, rated 1887, finished at 3.0/9 points

Chess on his mind: Armenian GM Avetik Grigoryan, 2600, finished with 5.0/9 points

Flamboyant: Iranian player Ali Abedi, rated 2197, who finished on 5.0/9

Following the live broadcast of key games on a flatscreen in the club halls

Video impression and interviews by Vijay Kumar

14th Dubai Open Round 6 and 7 with winners interviews

Dubai Open penultimate round interviews with joint leaders

Links Official tournament site Selection of games in PGN A selection of games are being broadcast shown as a live stream on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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