The curtains came down on the 17th Dubai Open Chess Championship – Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup with Turkey’s Grandmaster (GM) Dragan Solak receiving the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup during Wednesday night’s awarding ceremony at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. Solak, a Serbian who now represents Turkey, scored seven points and edged out five other players, including the top two seeds, on tiebreaks to claim the championship.
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The prizes were awarded by Dr. Aysha Al Busmait, representative of the Dubai Sports Council, Ibrahim Al Bannai, President of the Arab Chess Federation and Chairman of Dubai Chess and Culture Club, Saeed Al Muqbali, President of the UAE Chess Federation, and Ahmed Khalifa Al Thani, Vice President of Dubai Chess and Culture Club. Al Bannai also gave a special token of appreciation to Richard Collins, General Manager of JW Marriott Hotel, which was the official hotel of the tournament.
More than 150 players from 39 countries competed in nine-round Swiss system event over nine days.
Top-seed GM David Howell of England and second-seed GM Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia also had seven points but had inferior tiebreak scores to settle for second and third respectively. GM Andrei Istratescu of France, GM Ivan Ivanisevic of Serbia and GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan also had seven points and occupied the fourth to sixth places in that order.
The rest of the top 15 scorers also received cash prizes: GM Alexander Shabalov USA, GM Nils Grandelius of Sweden, International Master (IM) Zaur Mammadov of Azerbaijan, GM Alexandr Fier of Brazil, GM Aleksandr Shimanov of Russia, GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia, GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan, GM Igor Kovalenko of Latvia, and GM Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine.
Special Awards to Emiraties
The tournament also had special awards to the top Emiratis, with ace junior Ahmed Fareed taking the top prize with five points, followed by Fide Master (FM) Saeed Ishaq with 4.5 points and Ajman’s Hamdan Marshool with four points. The top three Dubai players were FM Sultan Ibrahim, FM Nabil Saleh and up-and-coming Faisal Ali.
Top Ladies Category
IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman from India topped the ladies’ category with 5.5 points, edging out Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Gunay Mammadzada from Azerbaijan on tiebreak. IM Eesha Karavade of India was third with five points.
Top Arab Players
The awards for the top Arab players went to Egyptian players IM Mohamed Ezat, IM Imed Abdelnabbi and FM Yousry Salah.
Best performance for under-2300 rating
The top player in the under-2300 rating category was Deshpande Aniruddha from India, followed by Rajarishi Karthi also of India and Iran’s Soozankar.
A New Grand Master
Five players also secured norms during the tournament. IM Zaur Mammadov of Azerbaijan got his Final GM norm and became a new Grand Master, while India’s Vignesh Nr, Abishek Kelkar and Deshpande Aniruddha received IM norms. Wang Shanshan secured a Woman International Master (WIM) norm.
Playing System
The tournament is a nine-round Swiss system event with each player allotted 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment for each move to complete a game. The event is organized annually since 1999 under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the Honorary President of Dubai Chess Club. The 17th version of Dubai Open Chess Tournament has been managed by tournament director Yahya Mohammed Saleh and International Arbiter (IA) Mahdi Abdul Rahim, the chief arbiter, and assisted by deputy chief arbiter IA Saeed Yousuf Shakari, IA Jamal Qasim, IA Sheikha Ali Rashid, IA Walid Abu Obeid and IA Augusto Marcial.
GM Dragan Solak
FM Sultan Ibrahim received the prize for best Dubai player
Deshpande Aniruddha receives his IM norm
Final rankings:
1 GM Solak Dragan TUR 2602 7
2 GM Howell David W L ENG 2687 7
3 GM Fedoseev Vladimir RUS 2674 7
4 GM Istratescu Andrei FRA 2630 7
5 GM Ivanisevic Ivan SRB 2638 7
6 GM Safarli Eltaj AZE 2637 7
7 GM Shabalov Alexander USA 2500 6,5
8 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2613 6,5
9 IM Mammadov Zaur AZE 2470 6,5
10 GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2624 6,5
11 GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2601 6,5
12 GM Rakhmanov Aleksandr RUS 2623 6,5
13 GM Guseinov Gadir AZE 2606 6
14 GM Kovalenko Igor LAT 2665 6
15 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 2584 6
16 GM Zhigalko Sergei BLR 2657 6
17 IM Das Sayantan IND 2439 6
18 GM Petrosian Tigran L. ARM 2660 6
19 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 2642 6
20 GM Ipatov Alexander TUR 2614 6
21 GM Papp Gabor HUN 2589 6
22 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo VEN 2632 6
23 GM Banusz Tamas HUN 2586 6
24 GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2602 6
25 GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2658 6
26 GM Ehlvest Jaan USA 2547 6
27 GM Prohaszka Peter HUN 2601 6
28 GM Perunovic Milos SRB 2627 6
29 IM Harutyunian Tigran K. ARM 2445 6
30 GM Kovchan Alexander UKR 2581 6
31 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil GEO 2595 5,5
32 GM Laxman R.R. IND 2409 5,5
33 IM Petrosyan Manuel ARM 2427 5,5
34 GM Idani Pouya IRI 2499 5,5
35 GM Stojanovic Mihajlo SRB 2558 5,5
36 IM Georgiadis Nico SUI 2479 5,5
37 GM Sundararajan Kidambi IND 2420 5,5
38 Deshpande Aniruddha IND 2244 5,5
39 IM Karthikeyan Murali IND 2504 5,5
40 IM Ezat Mohamed EGY 2479 5,5
41 FM Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. IND 2319 5,5
42 GM Hayrapetyan Hovik ARM 2465 5,5
43 IM Baghdasaryan Vahe ARM 2400 5,5
44 GM Grover Sahaj IND 2526 5,5
45 IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman IND 2331 5,5
46 WGM Mammadzada Gunay AZE 2336 5,5
47 IM Kanter Eduard RUS 2349 5,5
48 Abhishek Kelkar IND 2365 5
49 Vignesh Nr IND 2380 5
50 IM Pourramezanali Amirreza IRI 2433 5
51 Kulkarni Rakesh IND 2319 5
52 IM Karavade Eesha IND 2403 5
53 GM Vocaturo Daniele ITA 2594 5
54 IM Rathnakaran K. IND 2422 5
55 WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre TUR 2311 5
56 Rajarishi Karthi IND 2123 5
57 Wang Shanshan CHN 2028 5
58 IM Abdelnabbi Imed EGY 2433 5
59 Ahmed Fareed UAE 1960 5
60 FM Yousry Salah EGY 2334 5
61 IM Videnova Iva BUL 2398 5
62 Kulkarni Vinayak IND 2067 5
63 Siva Mahadevan IND 2068 5
64 FM Soozankar A.M. IRI 2207 5
65 FM El Jawich Amro LIB 2190 5
66 FM Mohannad Farhan JOR 2239 5
67 Bit-Narva David SWE 2109 5
68 Berglind Axel SWE 2112 5
69 Visakh Nr IND 2369 4,5
70 IM Pascua Haridas PHI 2454 4,5
71 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2629 4,5
72 Kuznetsov Mikhail V. RUS 2260 4,5
73 IM Tissir Mohamed MAR 2354 4,5
74 Mosadeghpour Masoud IRI 2384 4,5
75 WIM Abdulla Khayala AZE 2255 4,5
76 IM Sagar Shah IND 2458 4,5
77 Firouzja Alireza IRI 2278 4,5
78 Ahmad Al Khatib JOR 2157 4,5
79 FM Fawzy Adham EGY 2252 4,5
80 Tabada Jobannie C. PHI 2238 4,5
81 WFM Gevorgyan Maria ARM 2182 4,5
82 Mohammed Tarig Elther SUD 2094 4,5
83 Mahmoud Haitham SUD 1938 4,5
84 WGM Maisuradze Nino FRA 2270 4
85 FM Ram Aravind L N IND 2109 4
86 IM Kathmale Sameer IND 2289 4
87 FM Bashirli Nail AZE 2263 4
88 FM Saeed Ishaq UAE 2200 4
89 IM Abou El Zein Eid Mahmoud EGY 2191 4
90 Rafee Mohd Hayel SYR 1939 4
91 FM Sultan Ibrahim UAE 2038 4
92 CM Rowe Duane JAM 2214 4
93 WCM Mammadova Narmin AZE 2133 4
94 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab AZE 2263 4
95 Razan Alshaeby JOR 1844 4
96 WGM Mona Khaled EGY 2125 4
97 CM Nadir Samir SUD 2157 4
98 Hamdan Marshool UAE 1932 4
99 Al Yaghshi M. Hisham SYR 2046 4
100 FM Saleh Nabil UAE 2284 4
101 Rodrigues Inacio IND 2032 4
102 WFM Boshra Alshaeby JOR 2002 4
103 Faisal Ali UAE 1606 4
104 Sielicki Tomasz POL 1905 4
105 IM Kharous Ernest RUS 2346 4
106 Wenzel Birger GER 2002 4
107 Akshay V Halagannavar IND 1921 4
108 WIM Nouman Amna UAE 1948 4
109 GM Arun Prasad S. IND 2508 4
110 GM Nigalidze Gaioz GEO 2566 4
111 Mokal Amruta Sunil IND 2075 3,5
112 WGM Ozturk Kubra TUR 2284 3,5
113 Abdulla, Al-Hamed UAE 1772 3,5
114 WGM Makropoulou Marina GRE 2154 3,5
115 FM Mayed Alrashedi UAE 1852 3,5
116 WFM Alattar Ghayda M. JOR 1937 3,5
117 CM Alattar Rakan JOR 2065 3,5
118 Almaini Aishah Sarhan UAE 1335 3,5
119 Sultan Fareed UAE 1520 3,5
120 Rajesh Vasanthakumar IND 1534 3
121 Ali Abdulaziz UAE 1736 3
122 Wettasinha Vasanta SRI 1872 3
123 Tleptsok Ruslan RUS 2204 3
124 Al Hamed Saif Idrees UAE 1623 3
125 Aswin Sreekumar IND 1480 3
126 WIM Al-Zarouni Kholoud Essa UAE 1853 3
127 Tamara Khateeb JOR 1736 3
128 Jijo Joy IND 1411 3
129 Harikrishnan Samyuktha IND 1466 3
130 Asmar Elie LIB 2018 3
131 Aseel Odeh JOR 1573 3
132 Mohamed Marshool UAE 1559 3
133 GM Beshukov Sergei RUS 2410 3
134 WCM Bashaer Khalil UAE 1538 3
135 Shahzad Asif PAK 0 3
136 IM Isaev Jamshed TJK 2310 3
137 Abdulla Ali UAE 1748 2,5
138 Kloub.M JOR 1790 2,5
139 Raya Alnaimat JOR 1715 2,5
140 Murad Abdulla UAE 1685 2,5
141 FM Elmejbri Ali A. LBA 1894 2,5
142 Ahmed Mohamed Qayed UAE 1398 2,5
143 Fawwaz Mohammed IND 1341 2,5
144 Ahmad Saadah JOR 1777 2,5
145 Babaliyev Myrat TKM 2012 2,5
146 Ali Rashid Ali UAE 1906 2
147 Ahmad Al Romaithi UAE 1886 2
148 Al Ali Aisha Saif UAE 1377 2
149 Khalil Reem UAE 1142 2
150 Fatima Saif Al-Ali UAE 1226 2
151 Lootah Feddah Mohamad UAE 0 1
152 Mridul Thaivalappil M. IND 1294 1
153 Fernandez Dandel PHI 2075 0
154 Ojagverdiyev Zaur AZE 2043 0
155 WGM Charkhalashvili Inga GEO 2318 0
