150 players from 27 nations have converged in Al Ain to participate in the 3rd Al Ain Classic 2014. Amongst them are 43 grandmasters, 14 International Masters and nine woman grandmasters. At stake is the total prize fund of $50,000. UAE is known for conducting extremely strong events like the Dubai Open and the Abu Dhabhi Open. However, Al Ain Classic surpassed both of them by having the first prize of $11,000. (Dubai and Abu Dhabi both had $10,000 for the winner)
After six rounds of hard fought chess we have a highly unexpected sole leader in the event. He is the 28th seed and has been rampaging through the field.
Meet GM Gaoiz Nigalidze (2536), the 2013 Georgian champion
Gaoiz is currently on 5.5/6, a half point ahead of three players. He has beaten three GMs above 2600, and they include Alexander Areshchenko, Abhijeet Gupta and Yuriy Kuzubov. After six rounds he has an amazing rating performance of 2889 and is already gaining 25 Elo points.
Gaoiz looks very relaxed at the chess board
In the sixth round Nigalidze played a fighting game against Yuriy Kuzubov. The game is special because from the black side of the Najdorf, Gaoiz played a novelty in a position that had been reached already in 300 games before. And that too a piece sacrifice! As I watched the game I was curious to know whether he had prepared this move at home or was it over the board inspiration. At the dinner table the Georgian clarified that he came up with it after some thought on the board. Though objectively it was not the best move and not many players would be willing to try it again, it surely had a great surprise effect on Kuzubov, who was unable to solve the practical problems that he was presented with. Have a look at this pretty game.
In the second place are Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Vladimir Onischuk and Sergei Zhigalko with 5.0/6
Untitled Document Rank after Round 6
| Rk. | SNo | Ti. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | rtg+/- |
| 1 | 28 | GM | Nigalidze Gaioz | GEO | 2536 | 5.5 | 20.5 | 18.50 | 24.8 |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Zhigalko Sergei | BLR | 2672 | 5.0 | 22.0 | 17.75 | 5.2 |
| 3 | 16 | GM | Onischuk Vladimir | UKR | 2614 | 5.0 | 20.5 | 17.00 | 9.0 |
| 4 | 1 | GM | Kryvoruchko Yuriy | UKR | 2688 | 5.0 | 20.5 | 16.50 | 8.5 |
| 5 | 13 | GM | Oleksienko Mikhailo | UKR | 2621 | 4.5 | 21.0 | 15.50 | 6.7 |
| 6 | 6 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L. | ARM | 2651 | 4.5 | 21.0 | 15.25 | 5.5 |
| 7 | 26 | GM | Sengupta Deep | IND | 2566 | 4.5 | 20.5 | 15.75 | 7.2 |
| 8 | 23 | GM | Kovchan Alexander | UKR | 2577 | 4.5 | 20.5 | 15.00 | 3.0 |
| 9 | 8 | GM | Shankland Samuel L | USA | 2642 | 4.5 | 20.5 | 14.50 | 2.3 |
| 10 | 19 | GM | Volkov Sergey | RUS | 2599 | 4.5 | 20.0 | 15.50 | 3.1 |
| 11 | 34 | GM | Grover Sahaj | IND | 2505 | 4.5 | 20.0 | 15.25 | 10.7 |
| 12 | 33 | GM | Abasov Nijat | AZE | 2509 | 4.5 | 20.0 | 14.00 | 15.1 |
| 13 | 12 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2625 | 4.5 | 19.5 | 14.00 | 0.6 |
| 14 | 4 | GM | Areshchenko Alexander | UKR | 2661 | 4.5 | 19.0 | 14.00 | -0.9 |
| 15 | 43 | GM | Bakre Tejas | IND | 2454 | 4.5 | 19.0 | 13.75 | 9.1 |
| 16 | 14 | GM | Miroshnichenko Evgenij | UKR | 2618 | 4.5 | 18.5 | 16.25 | -1.0 |
| 17 | 20 | GM | Gopal G.N. | IND | 2580 | 4.5 | 18.5 | 14.25 | 5.3 |
| 18 | 18 | GM | Sandipan Chanda | IND | 2599 | 4.5 | 18.5 | 14.25 | 1.0 |
| 19 | 27 | GM | Paichadze Luka | GEO | 2561 | 4.5 | 18.0 | 14.25 | 2.4 |
| 20 | 39 | GM | Arun Prasad S. | IND | 2482 | 4.5 | 17.0 | 12.00 | 7.5 |
| 21 | 29 | GM | Malakhatko Vadim | BEL | 2533 | 4.5 | 16.5 | 12.50 | 1.2 |
| 22 | 2 | GM | Kuzubov Yuriy | UKR | 2681 | 4.0 | 23.0 | 16.50 | -2.7 |
| 23 | 31 | GM | Gasanov Eldar | UKR | 2526 | 4.0 | 20.0 | 13.25 | 2.4 |
| 24 | 21 | GM | Parligras Mircea-Emilian | ROU | 2580 | 4.0 | 19.5 | 13.75 | -2.8 |
| 25 | 40 | GM | Babujian Levon | ARM | 2471 | 4.0 | 19.5 | 13.00 | 8.2 |
| 26 | 15 | GM | Pashikian Arman | ARM | 2617 | 4.0 | 18.5 | 13.25 | -6.6 |
| 27 | 49 | IM | Karavade Eesha | IND | 2392 | 4.0 | 18.5 | 12.50 | 8.4 |
| 28 | 24 | GM | Kravtsiv Martyn | UKR | 2576 | 4.0 | 18.0 | 12.50 | -3.2 |
| 29 | 35 | IM | Mammadov Zaur | AZE | 2505 | 4.0 | 18.0 | 11.50 | 1.1 |
| 30 | 57 | IM | Morchiashvili Bachana | GEO | 2337 | 4.0 | 18.0 | 11.00 | 8.2 |
| 31 | 38 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | IND | 2484 | 4.0 | 17.5 | 12.50 | -1.2 |
| 32 | 58 | Mosadeghpour Masoud | IRI | 2337 | 4.0 | 17.5 | 11.50 | 5.0 | |
| 33 | 11 | GM | Mchedlishvili Mikheil | GEO | 2625 | 4.0 | 17.0 | 11.25 | -8.8 |
| 34 | 36 | GM | Ankit R. Rajpara | IND | 2494 | 4.0 | 16.0 | 11.75 | 1.4 |
| 35 | 42 | GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | IND | 2463 | 4.0 | 15.5 | 11.00 | -6.1 |
| 36 | 96 | Mohammed Tarig Elther | SUD | 2044 | 4.0 | 15.5 | 9.50 | 34.6 |
The American star Samuel Shankland was suffering from bad health and at one point was even thinking of withdrawing from the tournament. His health is better now and he played a nice miniature against GM Ulvi Bajarani.
Usually chess authors of opening books do not play in many tournaments. But when they do, it is interesting to see if they are willing to play the opening they advocate in their books. One such person playing in this tournament is GM Viktor Moskalenko. He has written five books for New In Chess and one of them was on the Budapest Gambit. In round four when he met GM Abhijeet Gupta who always opens his game with 1.d4 it was fascinating to see this game unfold on the board.
Moskalenko lost the game but in the analysis he tried to defend his beloved opening. His position was fine but the offside rook on a5 was the main reason for his defeat. After presenting the above game, it would be only fair to show you a nice king manoeuvre by this great author in the next round.
Soumya Swaminathan, who was the 2009 World Junior girls champion, had a depressing loss in one of her games. In a totally equal position she touched the wrong piece and lost a knight without any compensation.
Soumya Swaminathan in an earlier game. Touching the wrong piece
happens rarely. But when it does, it gives you sleepless nights.
Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Shakhboot Al Nahyan, who is the Chairman of the Al Ain Chess
and Culture club, visited the tournament hall and was happy with the arrangements
A very nice part of the tournament is the participation of many strong women players. Here are portrait pictures of a few of them:
The reigning National champion of Azerbaijan: WGM Abdulla Khayala
The first WGM of India: Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman
WGM Maria Kursova, married to GM Arman Pashikian
The 2014 Kazakhstan women’s champion: WGM Nakhbayeva Guliskhan
Smiling and friendly arbiters
Yes it should, shouldn't it? The food in Al Ain is sumptuous...
... like this rice preparation called biryani.
A wide variety of fresh fruits
And the desserts are mouth-wateringly delicious!
The hotel has a spacious swimming pool…
… which the players, here Mikheil Mchedlishivili, Luka Paichadze, Akash Thakur and
Harshit Raja, use to rejuvenate themselves after the game
The tournament director, Tarek Al Taher, who is busy taking care
of all the minute details to make this tournament a grand success
GM Dmitry Komarov, analysing selected games for the viewers, with
Mehrdad Pahlevanzade. Have a look at two of the games commented by him.
Here is one more interesting position we missed in our previous report:
Wishing all the readers of ChessBase a merry Christmas from Al Ain
All pictures by Amruta Mokal
LinksThe games are being broadcast live 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 and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
 |
