GM Aleksey Grebnev wins Dubai Open on tiebreak

by André Schulz
6/5/2025 – Aleksey Grebnev won this year’s Dubai Open on tiebreak. French Grandmaster Alan Pichot scored the same number of points but finished second. Rating favorite Nihal Sarin had to settle for sixth place after losing to Ivan Zemlyanskii in the seventh round. | Photos: Dubai Chess & Culture Club
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The Dubai Chess & Culture Club held its traditional Dubai Open from May 27 to June 5 at its venue, with the tournament played in two rating categories.

The A-Open featured 83 players, almost all of them titleholders. Once again, India sent the largest contingent, with 33 participants. The top seed, Nihal Sarin (Elo 2693), also came from India. He started strongly with 3.5 points from the first four rounds but then drew his games in rounds five and six. In round seven, Nihal lost to Ivan Zemlyanskii, falling further behind the tournament leaders and dropping to ninth place.

After seven rounds, Aleksey Grebnev—playing under the FIDE flag—led the field with six points, having scored five wins and two draws. He was followed by fellow Russian Ivan Zemlyanskii. In the final two rounds, Grebnev drew both games, allowing Alan Pichot—who won his last two games—to catch up on points. Thanks to his better tiebreak, however, the tournament victory went to Grebnev.

Aleksey Grebnev

Nihal Sarin scored 1.5 points in the final two rounds, but it was only enough for sixth place.

Six women also took part in the tournament. Hungary’s Zsoka Gaal and India’s Ravi Rakshitta each scored 3.5 points, while Eline Roebers finished with three points.

Eline Roebers

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts. Tb1 
1 Grebnev, Aleksey 7 2522
2 Pichot, Alan 7 2455
3 Zemlyanskii, Ivan 6,5 2489
4 Sargsyan, Shant 6,5 2486
5 Indjic, Aleksandar 6,5 2453
6 Nihal, Sarin 6 2519
7 Movahed, Sina 6 2494
8 Gorshtein, Ido 6 2476
9 Aditya, Mittal 6 2465
10 Tin, Jingyao 6 2428
11 Bharath, Subramaniyam H 5,5 2524
12 Rohith, Krishna S 5,5 2522
13 Pham, Tran Gia Phuc 5,5 2492
14 Muradli, Mahammad 5,5 2490
15 Bronstein, Or 5,5 2480
16 Dau, Khuong Duy 5,5 2466
17 Parkhov, Yair 5,5 2465
18 Sokolovsky, Yahli 5,5 2461
19 Aswath, S 5,5 2449
20 Ashraf, Artin 5,5 2446
21 Narayanan, S L 5,5 2445
22 Jubin, Jimmy 5 2515
23 Ilamparthi, A R 5 2497
24 Dotzer, Lukas 5 2478
25 Tsaruk, Maksim 5 2469
26 Aronyak, Ghosh 5 2458
27 Stribuk, Artiom 5 2442
28 Kacharava, Nikolozi 5 2437
29 Shyam, Sundar M. 5 2432
30 Srihari, L R 5 2429

84 players...

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Topics: Dubai Open 2025
André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.
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