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.

Standings after seven rounds

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..."

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."

A special Blitz Tournament was staged after round five

All the winners of the Blitz in Dubai

Video impression of the Blitz by Vijay Kumar

Reaches hundreds of millions of households: Indian TV reporter Vijay Kumar

Links Official tournament site Selection of games in PGN A selection of games are being broadcast shown as a live stream 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. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

Copyright ChessBase