Abu Dhabi: Andreikin wins with strong finish

8/30/2016 – With more than a 100 titled players and more than 40 grandmasters the open tournament in Abu Dhabi that was played from 21st to 29th August had a strong field. Top seed was Dmitry Andreikin with a rating of 2733. With 3.0/4 he started the tournament well but not overwhelmingly. After six rounds he had 4.5/6, half-a-point less than the leader, but then won three fine games in a row. This was enough to finish clear first with 7.5/9.

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By Shohreh Bayat
Photos: Abdulla Murad

The Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival is one of the most prominent chess festival in all over the world, which consists of a wide variety of tournaments for all strengths and groups. The 23rd edition, held from August 21 to August 29, included players from 54 countries. The strongest section (Master tournament) had 137 players from 32 countries including 40 grandmasters, 38 international masters, and total of 106 title holder players.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is for its greenery;
the former desert strip today includes numerous parks and gardens.

Abu Dhabi is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Opening ceremony of 23rd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival

Falconry during the event!

Dmitry Andreikin won the first prize of 13,000 dollars, had a 2818 performance, gained nine
rating points and is now the world's number 25 in live ratings.

Andreikin began his strong finish with a fine and complex attacking game against Ukrainian grandmaster Alexander Zubov.

 

After beating Zubov with White in a Sicilian in round seven, Andreikin played with White again in round eight. Against Anton Demchenko from Russia. This time, Andreikin showed his skills in a Ruy Lopez.

 

After this win Andreikin had 6.5/8 and before the ninth and final round shared first place with GM Baskaran Adhiban from India and GM Alexandr Predke from Russia. On the black side of a Najdorf Andreikin won with a textbook example of an endgame good knight vs bad bishop.

 

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By winning against Predke Andreikin beat one of his direct rivals, and when the other, Baskaran Adhiban, did only draw with White against GM Salem A.R. Saleh from the United Arab Emirates Andreikin was sole winner of the tournament.

Finals standings after nine rounds

Rk. SNo   Name Federation Elo Pts  TB1   Wtg2  rtg+/-
1 1 GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS 2733 7,5 0,0 2564 9,0
2 3 GM Adhiban B. IND 2671 7,0 0,0 2599 13,7
3 7 GM Amin Bassem EGY 2654 7,0 0,0 2569 12,6
4 32 GM Predke Alexandr RUS 2553 6,5 0,0 2632 25,1
5 15 GM Salem A.R. Saleh UAE 2617 6,5 0,0 2580 12,9
6 5 GM Areshchenko Alexander UKR 2665 6,5 0,0 2577 7,0
7 19 GM Dragun Kamil POL 2609 6,5 0,0 2568 10,7
8 27 GM Lalith Babu M R IND 2575 6,5 0,0 2550 13,9
9 11 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo VEN 2626 6,5 0,0 2473 0,9
10 24 GM Demchenko Anton RUS 2600 6,0 0,0 2634 15,4
11 9 GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2639 6,0 0,0 2567 4,0
12 20 GM Zubov Alexander UKR 2606 6,0 0,0 2555 6,5
13 23 GM Savchenko Boris RUS 2602 6,0 0,0 2548 5,7
14 41 IM Aryan Chopra IND 2485 6,0 0,0 2530 16,4
15 2 GM Wang Hao CHN 2712 6,0 0,0 2524 -8,2
16 21 GM Prohaszka Peter HUN 2604 6,0 0,0 2511 1,7
17 22 GM Adly Ahmed EGY 2603 6,0 0,0 2504 1,3
18 16 GM Banusz Tamas HUN 2616 6,0 0,0 2492 -1,2
19 12 GM Andriasian Zaven ARM 2621 6,0 0,0 2486 -2,2
20 66 IM Krishna C R G IND 2401 6,0 0,0 2446 16,4
21 26 GM Azarov Sergei BLR 2581 6,0 0,0 2435 -3,8
22 31 GM Vaibhav Suri IND 2556 6,0 0,0 2403 -4,7
23 78 GM Laxman R.R. IND 2374 5,5 0,0 2607 34,7
24 34 GM Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag BRA 2550 5,5 0,0 2575 9,2
25 29 GM Antipov Mikhail Al. RUS 2565 5,5 0,0 2569 7,0
26 38 IM Ly Moulthun AUS 2501 5,5 0,0 2567 14,1
27 4 GM Fedoseev Vladimir RUS 2670 5,5 0,0 2556 -5,5
28 37 GM Vishnu Prasanna. V IND 2512 5,5 0,0 2545 9,8
29 18 GM Oleksiyenko Mykhaylo UKR 2610 5,5 0,0 2533 -1,2
30 6 GM Efimenko Zahar UKR 2661 5,5 0,0 2513 -10,4

...131 players

Tie Break1: Direct Encounter (The results of the players in the same point group)
Tie Break2: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)

Source: chess-results

Adhiban Baskaran

Adhiban Baskaran finished second with 7.0/9. In 2008 he was World Under-16 Champion and in July 2014 he won the Biel Chess Festival.
At the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromso he contributed to India's bronze medal by scoring 7.0/11 on board four.

GM Bassam Amin from Egypt came third with 7.0/9

GM Alexandr Predke  finished fourth with 6.5/9 and came fourth

GM Salem Abdulrahman Mohamed Saleh (2617), winner of Asian Chess Championships 2015
in Al Ain and winner of  the Asian Blitz Chess Championship finished on place five with 6.5/9.

This picture was taken at an excursion to the Abu Dhabi Ferrari world, the first
and only Ferrari theme park which also holds the record for the largest space frame structure ever built.

Chief organizer of the event is Mr.Ismaeil Alkhouri who always strives to offer the players the best. He is a fantastic organizer.

Zuhair Ahmad was the General Coordinator of the Festival. He worked hard to
give every player more than one good reasons to come back.

Friendly and helpful: Chief Arbiter IA Saeed Al Khouri and organizing committee member Mr. Mohamed Hamad

ChessBase author IM/WGM Tania Sachdev

WGM Mona Khaled from Egypt

GM Wang Hao from China

Wang Hao giving a simul

GM Kamil Dragun from Poland (2609)

GM Alexander Areshchenko from Ukraine (2665)

Games

 


A tournament to enjoy

A video from the closing ceremony (by Murad Abdullah)

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.