International Chess Festival in Abu Dhabi

by ChessBase
8/24/2005 – 34 GMs, 18 IMs, all playing in the beautiful seaside Khalidia Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. This is the 15th annual event and it attracts participants from all over the world. This time it was from 43 different countries. We bring you the games, results and a big picture report.
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Competitors from 43 countries took part in the 15th Annual Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, which was held from 14th to 23rd August 2005 at the Khalidia Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, under the patronage of Lt Gen Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Minister of Interior.


The Khalidia Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi

We counted 23 GMs and three WGMs, 12 IMs and five WIMs at the top event, the Master Tournament. Including the Open there were 34 grandmasters, 18 IMs, 8 FMs 11 players with an Elo ratings of more than 2,200. The players came from Qatar, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Russia, England, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Iran, India, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Germany, Philippines, Croatia, Bosnia, Tajikstan, Hungary, Pakistan, Holland, Romania, Serbia and UAE.

Final standings of the Master Tournament (nine rounds)

Rk.   Name FED   Rtg    Pts.  TB1 
1 GM ANASTASIAN Ashot ARM 2595 7.0 49.0
2 GM BOCHAROV Dmitry RUS 2574 6.5 46.5
3 IM KAYUMOV Sergey UZB 2405 6.5 43.5
4 GM KOBALIA Mikhail RUS 2614 6.0 52.0
5 GM GOLOSHCHAPOV Alexander   UKR 2519 6.0 52.0
6 GM ALEKSANDROV Aleksej BLR 2630 6.0 51.0
7 GM MAMEDYAROV Shakhriyar AZE 2646 6.0 50.5
8 GM FEDOROV Alexei BLR 2611 6.0 49.0
9 GM POTKIN Vladimir RUS 2534 6.0 46.5
10 GM KOTSUR Pavel KAZ 2595 6.0 45.5
11 IM IBRAHIMOV Rasul AZE 2525 6.0 43.0
12 GM RAUSIS Igors BAN 2498 6.0 43.0
13 GM GANGULY Surya Shekhar IND 2596 6.0 42.5
14 GM CHERNYSHOV Konstantin RUS 2548 5.5 49.5
15 GM VOLKOV Sergey RUS 2622 5.5 48.5
16 GM IULDACHEV Saidali UZB 2541 5.5 48.0
17 GM GUSEINOV Gadir AZE 2585 5.5 47.0
18 GM GHAEM MAGHAMI Ehsan IRI 2603 5.5 46.0
19 GM GRIGORIANTS Sergey RUS 2562 5.5 45.5
20 IM PRASAD Devaki V IND 2359 5.5 44.0
21 WIM KARAVADE Eesha IND 2370 5.5 39.0

Picture Gallery


Panorama view of the tournament venue (click to enlarge)


A sea view from the tournament site


Arabic style seating area


Chief arbiter Sultan Taher


Tournament winner Ashot Anastasian, Armenia, Elo 2595


The winner receives his trophy


All the winners collected for a group photo


Sheikhs following the games in progress


Equal second: GM Dmitry Bocharov, 2574, Russia


Equal second: IM Sergey Kayumov, 2405, Uzbekistan


WIM Eesha Karavade, 2370, India


FM Salem Ghuloom, 2318, UAE


WGM Shadi Paridar, 2263, Iran


Top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2646, Azerbaijan


The whole Mamedyarov family


The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi (which incidentally is a seven star hotel, not a private residence, as rumors on the Internet would have you believe)


The hotel courtyard by night

More pictures are available on the photo page of the tournament site. The images are excellently captioned and even sorted according to the players' ratings. There is a lot of additional information on the Official web site. Information provided by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.

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