Looking back at Dubai 2014: winner's comments

16th Dubai Open Chess Championship It is the strongest Open tournament in the Middle East and one of the most popular chess events on the world calendar. The tournament, which ran from 7th-15th April, is held in the Dubai Chess and Culture Centre, which is the biggest than most modern dedicated chess club in the world. The event attracted 148 players from 39 countries, including 79 titled players. There were 38 GMs in the field, and the average rating of the tournament was 2214. The time control was one hour 30 mins + 30 seconds increment per move. The first prize for the event was US $10,000, with the total prize fund of $50,000.

Winner Romain Edouard comments

Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta (2630) started the 2014 Dubai Open with a ferocious 4.0/4 points. The talented Indian, who in 2008 won the World Junior title and at one point in his career had an rating of 2667, witnessed a slump in form in 2013. But since then he has been regaining the lost ground and is now on 2630.

Abhijeet was in full flow, but he met his match in round five. The game was analysed by Sagar Shah in our report after round six. After the event was over the man who put a damper on Abhijeet's meteoric start – and, to really exploit the metaphor, cause him to burn up in the atmosphere – kindly sent us some notes on this fateful encounter. French GM Romain Edouard went on to the the tournament.

Round five: Abhijit Gupta vs Romain Edouard

Video report on round five by Vijay Kumar

16th Dubai Open Chess Championship 2014 round five

Before the last round Romain Edouard was half point ahead Abhijeet Gupta, who had fought back bravely and had 6.5 to Romain's 7.0/8 points. In his final game the French GM had a formidable opponent in the form top seeded Anton Korobov (2698) from Ukraine, who was on 6.0/8 and desperately eager to jump to the top of the scoreboard. Korobov had the white pieces and it was clear that the game was going to be a bloody affair – especially when the Ukranian player made his intentions clear from the start: to play for a complicated and tense struggle by going for the London System. The game was analysed in our final report by Sagar Shah – here we bring you the commentary that the winner of the tournament kindly sent us.

Final video report by Vijay Kumar

Round nine of the Dubai Open 2014 – a brief interview with Romain Edouard begins at 7:10 min

Romain also sent us some pictures from Dubai.

Full concentration during the event...

... and relaxing at dinner with friends in Dubai

Dubai Fountain at night – I took this picture myself with my Sony Xperia M

Tough shot for a cellphone camera at night: me in front of the famous
Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world (829.8 m = 2,722 ft)

Enjoying Japanese/Lebanese food and the traditional chicha, just before my
flight back home, with Saud Al Marzouqi, a manager at the UAE Chess Federation

Top final ranking (after nine rounds)

• Full results and lists available here

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN (courtesy TWIC) All reports on Dubai The games were broadcast live 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 and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.