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.

Would you also like to give the Najdorf a try? Viktor Bologan is ready to help!

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

...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 Official tournament site All games in PGN 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.