4/22/2012 – "Who?" we hear you exclaim. Normunds is a 40-year-old Latvian grandmaster who has won his country's championship twice and played in seven Olympiads. His current rating is a modest 2557, but he has been playing at a 2761 level in this UAE tournament. With two rounds to go nine GMs are in hot pursuit. We bring you results, games, photos and a video report of the blitz tournament.
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14th
Dubai Open Chess Championship
Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup
This event is taking place from April 15th-23rd at the Dubai Chess and Culture
Club, which is the most modern and biggest dedicated chess club in the world.
Its players constitute the ‘backbone” of the UAE national team,
and as a matter of fact those players have achieved outstanding successes on
all levels.
The leaders Ni Hua and Vladimir Akopian drew their game in round six, as did
top most of the other top except for the Indian GMs Gupta, Negi and Sandipan.
In round all the leaders drew their games – except Normunds Miezis, who
had won his round six game against GM Zhao Weiqi, 2628, with black and now beat
GM Viorel Iordachescu, 2644, with white. That put "Norm" on top of
the results table, where he sits with a 2761 performance, standing to gain 18.5
points on the next rating list.
In the lead after seven rounds: Latvian GM Normunds Miezis
Top board Akopian vs Sandipan in round seven (draw)
Normunds Miezis beating Chinese GM Zhou Weiqi, 2628, in round six
GM Davit Petrossian, 2463, vs GM Loek van Wely, 2691 in round seven: 0-1
Struggling: everyone's favourite, 12-year-old WIM Zhansaya Abdumalik, rated
2137, was beaten in
round six by IM Tania Sachdev, 2414, and above in round seven by Iranian FM
Koohestani, 2364
We received a fairly bitter letter from Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov (above) regarding
the forfeit in
round two against Tania Sachdev. Ivan explains that he and Loek van Wely
had shared a taxi which had mistakenly driven them to a distant part of Dubai.
After the mistake had been corrected the two arrived 32 minutes after the start
of the round (30 minutes are allowed). "Loek opponent clearly understood
the problem and wanted to play the game," says Ivan. "My opponent
wanted her point very badly. After the appeals committee had positively answered
our appeal and allowed our games to be played, Loek's game started. Tania Sachdev
left the playing hall once she saw appeals committee meeting with deliberate
intention to 'win' her point. She was in her hotel, so I got a zero. About 15
minutes later the Delhi girl happily arrived back in the playing hall..."
Indian IM Tania Sachdev with 4.0/7 points
To which Tania Sachdev replied: "They have no zero tolerance here and
with a 30 minute default time the games start at 5:30 p.m. All the players leave
by the official bus together at 4:45. My opponent showed up a little over the
default time for whatever reason he claimed. The arbiter stopped the clock on
my board and signed the sheets, I left for my hotel about 15 minutes later,
around half past six, not even aware that there was going to be an appeal. At
half past seven in the evening I got a call from the organizer stating that
they have decided that I must play the game and must get to the tournament hall
as soon as I can, which is a little far and if stuck in traffic can take forever.
It was of course not ideal to start playing at 8 p.m. when the game is suppose
to begin at half past five, but in any case if they said I had to then I had
to. However five minutes later, while I was at the reception leaving, I got
another call saying that there has been a miscommunication and that there is
a possibility of a rematch only if I want it and its not forced. I took the
decision that I did not want to start my game at eight in the evening, and that
was it. As I was on my way I went to the hall and reached well past eight p.m.
I am extremely shocked at Mr. Sokolov's reaction. This is a sport and there
are rules. If a person is not able to make it on time, let alone 30 minutes
later, for whatever reason, I really think the least they can do is get over
it, instead of making themselves sound like the victim of their opponents decision."
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