Abu Dhabi ends in dramatic flurry

The Abu Dhabi Chess Festival is now in its 21st edition, and shows no sign of losing steam, but then again, considering the conditions, it is also no surprise. The festival is comprised of a wide variety of tournaments for all strengths and groups.

The final sprint

Video of round seven with a short interview of leader IM Murali Karthikeyan (at 6:00) and
right after is Wang Hao, Vidit Gujarati, and several others. (courtesy of Vijay Kumar)

As an example of the quality of the event, GM Ivan Sokolov provided live commentary
during the rounds, and video analysis of a game of the day he chose. Here is his
analysis of Iordachescu - Istratescu from round seven.

Round eight finally saw the hero stumble as Murali faced his compatriot GM Vidit Gujarati and lost to a fine technical display. The end result though must have had the Indian press absolutely ecstatic,  not because of Karthikeyan's unfortunate loss, but because all three top spots were occupied by Indians, despite a very international crowd of players. In first were now G.N. Gopal who had beaten top seed Wang Hao, and Vidit Gurajati, both with 6.5/8. Right behind, was a group of six players with 6.0/8 led by Murali himself, but threatened by numerous other strong players, leaving the podium wide open to a last round sprint.

Video of round eight, including impressions by the new leaders (courtesy of Vijay Kumar)

The final round was as dramatic as could be, and to the dismay of Indian fans, both Gopal and Gurajati succumbed in the final round to Kuzubov and Petrosian respectively, effectively knocking them out of the top prizes. 15-year-old Karthikeyan drew his game against Ukrainina Zahar Efimenko, and by virtue of his tiebreak, clinched third with 6.5/9, edging out no fewer than six other grandmasters with similar scores.

Video report of the last round (courtesy of Vijay Kumar)

GM Ivan Sokolov analyzed two games from the last round, as both were equally
decisive. The first key game was GM Kuzubov-GM Gujarathi, effectively deciding first.

Yury Kuzubov came out ahead in a last round swashbuckle and took
first prize and a check for $10 thousand

The second game analyzed by GM Ivan Sokolov was Gopal-Petrosian

Tigran Petrosian beat Gopal with black in the last round to take second

15-year-old IM Murali Karthikeyan held his nerve and came in third
with a 2700+ performance (Photo by Ahmed Khouri)

Video of the closing ceremony and prize distribution (courtesy of Vijay Kumar)

Group shot of all the winners from the festival

Final standings in Masters

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The 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 there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.