Wesley So wins Dubai Open, player disqualified for cheating

Report by IM Ravi Kumar

He had a brisk start and led the tournament till the end, with just one hiccup in the sixth round. Top Filipino grandmaster and whiz kid Wesley So never let it slip. He won the tournament with 7/9 and a 2708 performance. 14-year-old Wesley and 15-year-old Salem A.R. Saleh captured the imagination of the Dubai open chess championship with their sheer talent and panache. Wesley So became the first school boy to win a major open tournament in the history of the championship and Salem made a Grandmaster norm with a round to spare.

The winner: Wesley So, at 14 the world's youngest grandmaster from the Philippines

The 10th Dubai open chess Championship took place from April 6th to 15th, 2008, in the spacious Dubai chess club in United Arab Emirates The event was a 9 round Swiss System with 132 players. The rate of play was one hour 30 minutes for the whole game with an incremental time of 30 seconds per move from move 1. First prize was $6000.

After eight of nine rounds 14 year old Wesley So Philippines, Gagunashvili Merab of Georgia and Li Chao of China were in the lead, with 6.5/ 8. The trio were half a point ahead of a phalanx of eight grandmasters – just the kind of situation in which one would expect tough battles. However in the last round the drawing trend started in earnest on top boards, and only Iranian Grandmaster Ghaem Maghami Ehsan had the guts to play on and managed to attain an important victory over Ibrayev Nurlan. The championship ended in a four way tie, with Ghaem joining the overnight leaders. Wesley clinched the championship title on superior technical counts.

Final standings

Total prize sum: US $36,696 – with special prizes $42,396

A case of cheating in chess

A chess player from Iran, who cheated using his mobile phone to try and win a game, was excluded from the tournament. M. Sadatnajafi, with an Elo rating of 2288, while playing against Chinese Grandmaster Li Chao, made his moves based on the text messages he received on his mobile phone. In the earlier round Sadatnajafi defeated grandmaster Kalegin Evgenij (2510) with an computer style of play he won the piece on move 17 and went to win a complex endgame .

Chief arbiter Casto Abundo, confirming the incident, said: "As per the International Chess Federation (FIDE) laws, no player are supposed to use the mobile phone while playing. The matter is still being investigated and a report is being forwarded to the FIDE for further action."

Sadatnajafi is alleged to have followed instructions from some of his friends aided by computer in Iran while playing against Chao. This match was relayed live on the Internet and his friend, closely following his moves on the web, guided Sadatnajafi accordingly. Sadatnajafi had made only ten moves when he was caught looking into his mobile handset. When confronted, he immediately dropped his cell phone. On examining the handset, it was found that he had received SMS instructions in Farsi. The identity of the friend who had sent the text messages is still unknown.

Kalegin,E (2510) - Sadatnajafi,M (2288) [C77]
10th Open Dubai UAE (4), 09.04.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 Be7 7.Nbd2 0-0 8.0-0 b5 9.Bc2 d5 10.exd5 Qxd5 11.Qe2 Bf5 12.Ne4 h6 13.Rd1 Rfe8 14.Nh4 Bh7 15.Qf3 Qd7 16.Bxh6 Bxe4 17.dxe4 Qg4 18.Bxg7 Qxf3 19.Nxf3 Kxg7 20.Nh4 Rad8 21.Nf5+ Kf8 22.b4 Rxd1+ 23.Rxd1 Rd8 24.Nxe7 Rxd1+ 25.Bxd1 Nxe7 26.f3 Nc8 27.a4 Nb6 28.axb5 axb5 29.Bb3 Ne8 30.Kf2 Nd6 31.Ke2 Kg7 32.g3 f6 33.Be6 Kf8 34.h4 Ke7 35.Bh3 Na4 36.Kd3 Nb2+ 37.Kc2 Nbc4 38.Kd3 Ne8 39.h5 Kf7 40.Bd7 Ncd6 41.g4 Ng7 42.Bc6 Ne6 43.Bd5 Ke7 44.Ke3 Nf4 45.Bc6 Kf7 46.Bd7 Kg7 47.Bc6 Kh6 48.Bd7 Kg5 49.Bc6 Ne6 50.Bd7 Nd8 51.Ke2 Kf4 52.h6 N8f7 53.h7 Kg5 54.Ke3 Kh6 55.f4 Kxh7 56.Be6 Kg6 57.Kf3 Nc4 58.Bf5+ Kh6 59.Be6 Nfd6 60.Bd5 Nd2+ 61.Ke3 Nb1 62.g5+ Kg7 63.gxf6+ Kxf6 64.fxe5+ Kxe5 65.Kd3 Na3 66.Bc6 Nc8 67.Bd7 Ne7 68.Be8 Ng8 69.Bc6 Nf6 70.Ke3 Nc4+ 71.Kd3 Nd6 72.Kc2 Nfxe4 73.Kb3 Kf4 74.Kc2 Ke3 75.Bd7 Nd2 76.Bc6 N2c4 77.Bd7 Ne5 78.Bh3 Ke2 79.Be6 Nec4 80.Bg4+ Ke3 81.Bh5 Ke4 82.Bg6+ Kd5 83.Bh5 Ne5 84.Be2 c6 85.Bh5 Nf5 86.Kb3 Ne3 87.Be2 Ke4 88.Kb2 Kf4 89.Kc1 Kg3 90.Kd2 Kf2 91.Bh5 N3c4+ 92.Kd1 Ke3 93.Kc2 Nb6 94.Be8 Nd5 95.Bh5 Nf4 96.Be8 Ke4 97.Kd2 Kd5 98.Kc2 Kd6 99.Kb3 Kc7 0-1. [Click to replay]

Sadatnajafi,M (2288) - Ibraev,N (2507) [B87]
10th Open Dubai UAE (5), 10.04.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.Bb3 b5 8.0-0 Bb7 9.Re1 Nbd7 10.a4 b4

11.Nd5. This is a move known to theory. 11...Nc5. Nurlan Ibrayev, a Kazakh grandmaster, plays a new move, which is vigorously punished by his untitled Iranian opponent: 12.Bg5 exd5 13.exd5+ Kd7 14.Nc6 Bxc6 15.dxc6+ Kxc6 16.Bd5+ Kb6 17.Bxa8 Qxa8 18.Qd4 Nd5 19.Rad1 Nc7 20.Qxb4+ Ka7 21.Be3 N7e6 22.Qc4 Qc6 23.b4 Qxa4 24.Qd5 1-0. Quite traumatic for the GM. [Click to replay and check with chess engines]

Li Chao2 (2582) - Sadatnajafi,M (2288) [C54]
10th Open Dubai UAE (6), 12.04.2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 a6 6.Bb3 Ba7 7.0-0 0-0 8.Bg5 d6 9.h3 Ne7 10.Nh4 Ng6. This is where Sadatnajafi was caught and disqualified. 1-0. [Click to replay]

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