Grandelius wins Abu Dhabi Masters 2015

Nils Grandelius wins Abu Dhabi Masters 2015

Report from the tournament venue by IM Sagar Shah

The Abu Dhabi Masters was held from the 23rd to 31st of August 2015 in the capital city of UAE. 120 players from as many as 35 countries, with 44 grandmasters, participated in this event. 22 players had a rating of more than 2600. It was s a nine round Swiss tournament with the rate of play being one hour 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move. There were ten prizes and they were not shared. The winner took home US $12,000. This is the final report. You can read the previous articles on this tournament here.

Early morning, at 10 a.m., the last round of the Abu Dhabi Masters began. GM Nils Grandelius was going strong throughout the event, but his penultimate round loss to Alexander Areshchenko had left the tournament wide open. Going into the final round, as many as nine players had the chance to win the title. This is what the top five board pairings looked like:

10 a.m. round = sleepy faces, even if thousands of dollars are at stake!

The top board clash between the two Ukrainians Kravtsiv and Areshchenko ended in a 20-move draw in the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf. Already 19 games have been played until the final position of this encounter, and 18 of them had ended in draws. So, it can be guessed that the players had come with peaceful intentions.

Dmitry Komarov lightens up the mood in the commentary box with his trademark humour,
as Martyn Kravtsiv (left) and Alexander Areshchenko analyze their game for the viewers

The quick end of the first board game gave great chances to other players on six points to try for a win and claim the title. The fifth board between Peter Prohaszka and Aleksandr Rakhmanov also ended in a draw. As Peter said after the game, “It looked like I had a small edge, but my opponent (Rakhmanov) is just too solid a player for one to have any realistic chances of winning from that position.”

This left three important games on boards two, three and four to be completed. And thanks to great fighting chess displayed by the gladiators, all the battles turned out to be decisive. The first one to finish was Petrosian versus Jobava, which Baadur won with a beautiful pawn sacrifice. Richard Rapport’s game against Dariusz Swiercz was filled with ups and downs. With very less time on the clock Swiercz missed the draw and went on to lose the game.

Nils Grandelius versus Vladimir Akopian – the last game to end turned out to be the most interesting and important from a competitive point of view, as the winner of the event was decided from this encounter. In an extremely complicated battle Nils maintained his calm and went on to beat his experienced opponent. So it was a five-way tie at the top with Grandelius, Kravtsiv, Jobava, Areshchenko and Rapport all scoring 7.0/9. The first tie-break was the direct encounter, but it would only be applied if all the five players had played against each other. As it turned out, a few of them had not, and hence the winner was decided on the basis of the average rating of the opponents. Grandelius had the highest rating average and emerged as the champion of the 22nd Abu Dhabi Masters 2015.

After the game the author of these lines (above right) was able to get hold of the winner, Nils Grandelius, and asked him to shed light on his thought process during the final round game. Below on our JavaScript board you can find the analysis provided by Nils. Pay special attention to his insights. If you switch on the engine it will only show you evaluation like +/- 1.20 or +- 2.50. This is worthless. What is important for the practical and improving player is that you can read the thinking and emotions of a nearly 2650 player during the game, and learn from them; not just lifeless variations provided by the silicon monster!

Interview with the winner Nils Grandelius

SS: How does it feel to win such a strong event?

NG: This was definitely the biggest win of my career. It feels really good to win such a strong tournament.

SS: What were your expectations when you played this tournament?

NG: I came with no particular expectations. I hadn’t played for quite some time, five to six weeks, which is quite unusual for me. So, I didn’t know what to expect. But at the same time I was quite hungry to play a game of chess, and my motivation was higher than usual.

Nils went home richer by US $12,000 – a pretty sum indeed

SS: Were you following a specific schedule during the event?

NG: The games started at six in the evening. I prefer a time around two or three in the afternoon. But with regard to my own schedule, I did nothing particular apart from going to the gym every day, which I don’t usually do in every tournament. The days were so long that I had to spend my time somehow. But I had to be careful. If you spend too much time in the gym it will tire you out. And if you do not indulge in any physical activity it will tire you out too – in a different way! There should be a balance, which I was able to achieve in this event.

The time that I was spending for preparation was very little, because this single time control with ninety minutes and thirty seconds increment is almost like rapid. I preferred to save my energy and get it all in the game. If the time control was longer, say additional thirty minutes after forty moves, then I would have prepared more.

Nils gained 19 Elo points and is now up to 2647 in the live rating list

SS: Going over your white games we find that you opened two of them with 1.e4, one with 1.Nf3, one with 1.c4 and the last round game with 1.d4. What was your idea behind playing a different opening in almost every game?

NG: Part of the idea was to surprise the opponents, and partly it depended on what they would play. For example take my last round game against Akopian. He plays five to six different openings against 1.e4, and for the ten o’clock game it doesn’t really make sense to prepare so much. So I decided to play 1.d4 as he is slightly less flexible there. Thus, my opening choices would be dependent on my opponent’s repertoire but also on my mood and repertoire – when I sat down to play the first game of the tournament I played 1.Nf3 to start a bit safer, a bit slower, as I was playing after a long time.

SS: Are you not scared of getting caught in some line which you haven’t prepared deeply when you play so many openings?

NG: Yes, it’s possible, but it is also much more difficult for the opponents to prepare against me. It’s a trade-off which I am willing to undertake.

SS: Which was the most critical game of the tournament for you?

NG: It was definitely my fourth round game against Vladimir Belous. I was worse, maybe even lost. But he couldn’t convert it in the best possible way and I took my chance to fight back. Finally we reached an endgame position where I was a pawn up which was drawn. But I kept playing, he made mistakes and I managed to convert it into a full point! Winning the game from a lost position is definitely a sweet feeling, and that too with the black pieces and in the second round of the day. You can understand why this was the most critical game of the tournament. If I would have lost this game, my performance could have gone in a completely different direction.

Fourth round battle against Belous – the game that changed Nils’ fortune in the tournament

The game that I won against Rapport was special, but I think my opponent played quite strangely. For example this move f3-f4, closing his own bishop and allowing h5, was just too ambitious. After that I am clearly better.

From the point of view of final standings this was an extremely important game, winning with black on board one. But I still think my game against Belous was the most critical and the favourite one from the event.

SS: You lost the penultimate round against Areshchenko when you were leading the tournament by half a point. How did you take in the loss and come back strongly in the last game?

NG: Areshchenko is a very strong player, especially with the white pieces, so losing to him is very much a possibility. It was not like I missed a big chance in the game. He won the game in a clean fashion and this makes it easier to forget the loss. Had I been winning and blundered, it would have been much more difficult. So I went to the last round just to play. I did not check the standings or the possibilities of winning the tournament. When I went for the complications I just asked myself, “What are the demands of the position?” It required me to play energetically and take some risks, and I am not one of those players who shirks away from that.

SS: How did you find the organization of the event?

NG: It was excellent organization. Everything started on time and the conditions were very good. Being from Sweden I found the climate a little bit too hot for my liking, but the hotel was great and so it was not such a huge problem.

Nils’ tweet at the end of the tournament

Zuhair Ahmed, the chief coordinator of the event, made sure that all the details were taken care of

SS: What are your future plans?

NG: I am keeping to my rhythm of not playing too much. The next thing that I know for sure is that I will play is World Rapid and Blitz in Berlin during mid-October. I will take the event seriously and prepare for it in these intervening six weeks. It will be a very interesting challenge.

SS: And before I let you go, when can we expect the dreadlocks to be back?

Which do you like better: Nils in 2015 or Nils in 2011? [Latter picture by Calle Erlandson]

NG: (laughing) It’s going to take quite a while! I had these dreadlocks for more than five years. Enough of the old look, I will go for something new!

SS: Thanks a lot Nils, and enjoy your success.

Top final rankings (after nine rounds)

• Full rankings of all 111 players

Part two of this report with portraits of the runners-up will follow in a few days

Pictures by Amruta Mokal

Official tournament site All games in PGN ChessBase is providing detailed coverage of the Abu Dhabi Masters 2015. The games are being be 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.