Dubai Police Masters: Upsets in the first two rounds

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
5/6/2024 – The Dubai Police Global Challenge Masters kicked off on Saturday with 135 participants, including three 2700+ rated players. After two rounds, 11 players are tied for first place with 2/2 points. Surprisingly, this group only includes two players belonging to the top-20 in the starting rank. The tournament is a 9-round Swiss open with a classical time control. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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Eleven players on 2 out of 2

The Masters Tournament in the Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge is a 9-round Swiss open with a classical time control. A total of 135 participants from 28 different countries made their way to the most populous emirate in the UAE. Heading the field rating-wise are Yu Yangyi, Amin Tabatabaei and Vladislav Artemiev, who are all rated 2700 or above. Closely behind, 20 players in the 2600-2700 rating band are also participating.

After two rounds, 11 players are sharing first place with a perfect score. Notably, only 2 players belonging to the top-20 in the starting rank are included in this group: Aravindh Chithambaram (8th seed, Elo 2670) and Saleh Salem (17th, 2629). Meanwhile, the lowest-rated players in this group are Ilamparthi A R (64th, 2440) and Jan Malek (59th, 2461).

This mix of players atop the standings shows that the two first rounds have featured a number of upsets, with some of the top seeds — Yu Yangyi, Narayanan S L and Hans Niemann, among others — only managing a couple of draws against much lower-rated opposition at the outset of the event.

Women’s world champion Ju Wenjun travelled from Malmö to Dubai to play in this tournament — she requested a ½-point bye in the first round

The biggest surprise in the first round was given by IM Ravi Teja from India, who defeated ninth seed Nodibek Yakubboev from Uzbekistan. Last year, Yakubboev gained notoriety by winning the strong Qatar Masters, where he outscored the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri.

Ravi, in fact, managed to checkmate the Uzbek grandmaster.

Ravi Teja

Ravi Teja | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

The tournament is taking place on May 4-12, with no rest days in the schedule.

Standings after round 2

Rk. SNo Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3   TB4   TB5 
1 Movahed, Sina 2 3256
2 Malek, Jan 2 3246
3 Salem, A.R. Saleh 2 3238
4 Ilamparthi, A R 2 3205
5 Can, Emre 2 3204
Pranesh, M 2 3204
7 Makhnev, Denis 2 3192
8 Siddharth, Jagadeesh 2 3186
9 Madaminov, Mukhiddin 2 3171
10 Visakh, N R 2 3074
11 Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. 2 0
12 Shyaamnikhil, P 1,5 2853
13 Nigmatov, Ortik 1,5 2765
14 Nazari, Arad 1,5 2730
15 Iniyan, Pa 1,5 2724
16 Fawzy, Adham 1,5 2720
17 Miladinovic, Igor 1,5 2710
18 Mahdavi, Reza 1,5 2689
19 Nogerbek, Kazybek 1,5 2689
20 Urazayev, Arystanbek 1,5 2678
21 Gholami Orimi, Mahdi 1,5 2671
22 Tabatabaei, M. Amin 1,5 2654
23 Artemiev, Vladislav 1,5 2651
24 Sindarov, Javokhir 1,5 2648
25 Panesar, Vedant 1,5 2648

...135 players

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.