M. Amin Tabatabaei wins Sharjah Masters

The fourth edition of the Sharjah Masters open tournament in the Arab Emirate of Sharjah took place from 17 to 26 September. 60 players started in the 9-round Swiss to fight for a prize fund of USD 60,000, of which the winner received USD 10,000.

Sharjah, located north of Dubai, is part of the United Arab Emirates, which has experienced a major boom in recent years as a commercial and financial centre.

Sharjah also wants to distinguish itself as an educational centre, and opened two universities not long ago. Chess fits very well into this profile and with Saleh Salem, who was born in Sharjah, they also have a local grandmaster.

Saleh Salem

At the end of the tournament the local hero was one of the top four players: M. Amin Tabatabaei, Pavel Eljanov Saleh Salem and Parham Maghsoodloo all finished on 6.5 points and shared first prize.

Pavel Eljanov

But tournament winner was M. Amin Tabatabaei who had the best tiebreak.

The tournament had an excellent line-up with many young players, e.g. the two strong Uzbeks Nodirbek Yakhubboev and Nodirbek Abdusattorov and the newly crowned US Youth National Champion Hans Moke Niemann.

Live commentary of the last round

Crucial for Tabataei's victory was his fine win against Arkadij Naiditsch in round 8:

Final standings

Rk.	Snr		Name	Country	Elo	Pts.	Tb1	Tb2	Tb3
1	18	GM	Tabatabaei M. Amin	IRI	2624	6,5	0,0	42,5	36,0
2	3	GM	Eljanov Pavel	UKR	2680	6,5	0,0	42,0	36,0
3	4	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	UAE	2679	6,5	0,0	40,5	34,5
4	2	GM	Maghsoodloo Parham	IRI	2695	6,5	0,0	38,0	32,0
5	33	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	GEO	2571	6,0	0,0	45,5	39,0
6	9	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	KAZ	2651	6,0	0,0	44,0	38,0
7	12	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2632	6,0	0,0	43,5	37,0
8	26	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2604	6,0	0,0	40,0	33,5
9	23	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2612	6,0	0,0	38,0	32,5
10	5	GM	Adhiban B.	IND	2672	5,5	0,0	39,0	33,5
11	28	GM	Delgado Ramirez Neuris	PAR	2588	5,5	0,0	39,0	32,5
12	17	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2626	5,5	0,0	38,5	32,5
13	10	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2648	5,5	0,0	38,5	32,5
14	25	GM	Niemann Hans Moke	USA	2609	5,5	0,0	37,5	32,0
15	7	GM	Paravyan David	RUS	2660	5,5	0,0	37,0	31,5
16	27	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2603	5,5	0,0	36,5	31,0
17	34	GM	Sindarov Javokhir	UZB	2571	5,5	0,0	34,5	29,0
18	6	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	AZE	2663	5,0	0,0	43,5	37,5
19	13	GM	Moussard Jules	FRA	2631	5,0	0,0	40,0	33,5
20	19	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa	TUR	2624	5,0	0,0	39,0	33,0
21	8	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	GER	2657	5,0	0,0	34,5	28,5
22	29	GM	Iordachescu Viorel	MDA	2587	5,0	0,0	34,0	28,5
23	31	GM	Bogner Sebastian	SUI	2574	5,0	0,0	33,5	28,5
24	41	IM	Alavi Sayed Javad	IRI	2437	5,0	0,0	32,5	28,0
25	39	GM	Firat Burak	TUR	2466	5,0	0,0	31,5	26,