Romain Edouard wins Dubai Open

Round 9

French GM Romain Edouard, 23, defeated top seed GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine yesterday to win the 16th Dubai Open Chess Championship alone in first place, undefeated with an impressive 8 points out of 9 rounds. Edouard won the Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup and the top cash prize of $10,000 in the event organized by the Dubai Chess Club in Dubai, UAE.

The Frenchman played the Black side of a Queen’s Pawn game and sacrificed the exchange of a Rook for Knight on the 30th move to expose his opponent’s castled King. Faced with a mating net, Korobov resigned two moves later.

Erstwhile leader GM Abhijeet Gupta of India lost to GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. Gupta used the Gruenfeld defense but was squeezed in as Iturrizaga maintained the initiative of the White pieces and controlled the center files. Gupta was forced to exchange Queens on the 22nd move and lost two pawns which proved crucial in the endgame where he resigned on the 51st move. The win gave Iturrizaga a total of 7 points and a share of 2nd and 3rd places.

GM Yuriy Kozubov of Ukraine extracted revenge against Russian GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov to finish in a tie Iturrizaga at 7 points each. Kuzubov crushed the Modern Defense of Rakhmanov in 58 moves. The Ukrainian created passed pawns on both wings and managed to promote his pawn to a Queen when the Russian resigned on the 58th move.

Gupta finished in a tie for 4th to 9th places at 6.5 points each together with GMs Zaven Andriasian and Tigran L. Petrosian of Armenia, Hrvoje Stevic of Croatia, Andrei Istratescu of France and Gawai Jones of England. Andriasian beat GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan, Petrosian outplayed IM Ebrahim Ahmadinia of Iran, Stevic and Jones drew with each other while Istratescu won over Pontus Carlsson of Sweden.

Nineteen other players trail with 6 points each to share in the spoils of the $50,000 total prize fund, namely Korobov Anton of Ukraine, Rakhmanov Aleksandr or Russia, Akopian Vladimir of Armenia, Kotsur Pavel and Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan, Balogh Csaba of Hungary, Rahman Ziaur of Bangladesh, Brkic Ante and Jankovic Alojzije of Croatia, Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran, Solak Dragan of Turkey, Shyam Sundar and Babu Lalith of India, Bogner Sebastian and IM Nico Georgiadis of Switzerland, Amin Bassem of Egypt, Iordachescu Viorel of Moldova, Mchedlishvili Mikheil of Georgia, Stojanovic Mihajlo of Serbia.

A total of 148 players from 39 countries participated in the 16th Dubai Open Chess Championship including 38 GMs and 8 WGMs, 16 IMs, 3 WIMs, 10 FMs and 5 WFMs. Since its inception in 1999, the Dubai Open has been considered one of the major Swiss open tournaments in the chess world. Top boards were broadcast live on the Dubai Chess Club web site where viewers may download games and photos and find links to round by round video coverage on Youtube. Visitchess-results.com for results and final standings.