Ukrainians lead Al-Ain after three rounds

150 players from 27 nations have converged in Al Ain to participate in the 3rd Al Ain Chess Classic 2014. Amongst them are 43 grandmasters, fourteen International Masters and nine woman grandmasters. At stake is the total prize fund of $50,000. UAE is known for conducting extremely strong events like the Dubai Open and the Abu Dhabi Open. However, Al Ain Classic surpassed both of them by having the first prize of $11,000. (Dubai and Abu Dhabi both had $10,000 as the first prize) 

The inauguration ceremony was quite grand with videos being projected to the public on the walls

The Armenian GMs realized that chatting with each other was the best way to kill the two hour delay...

...while the defending champion Abhijeet Gupta and his compatriot GM Sahaj Grover posed for a few pictures

The first round of the tournament was scheduled to begin at 6pm. However, the inauguration ceremony went on for quite some time and due to a few other technical glitches, the round finally began at 8pm hours. With the time control having an additional 30 minutes after 40 moves, it meant that some of the games went on well past midnight!

There weren’t many upsets as the top seeded grandmasters met players almost 500 points below their rating. But there were a few draws, most notable being Rauf Mamedov drawing against WIM Dorsa Derakhshani (2188) and Mikheil Mchedlishivili splitting the point Aliyev Elnur (2141).

GM Eldar Gasanov (left) with GM Alexander Kovchan. Kovchan played a nice greek gift sacrifice
to win his first round game in style

The first round ended quite late and the players were quite tired. However, the next day was going to be even more hectic as two rounds were scheduled, the first one beginning as early as 9:30 AM! I had my task cut out as I was paired against the top seed of the event, Yuriy Kryvoruchko. After a successful opening, it seemed as if the game would end in a draw, when I made one of the most horrible blunders of my life.

24.a2-a3 meant that my opponent could simply chop off the a3 pawn
with 24…Bxa3! No excuse, not even the early morning round one would
be good enough for such an oversight.

After that Kryvoruchko showed some excellent endgame technique to convert his extra pawn

Ranked number 50 in the world, Yury Kryvoruchko (2688) is one of the
pre-tournament favourites

GM Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus played an amazing game in round two
which is worthy of close inspection

Playing three rounds back to back is not an easy task for any youngster. It was natural that the playing quality deteriorated and a lot of mistakes were made.

One of the greats, Ivan Sokolov, could not defend with precision and made
many mistakes in the third round to lose against Gulmar Mammadova

After three rounds, seven players are on perfect score with 3.0/3. They are Yuriy Kryvorcuhko, Yuriy Kuzubov, Sergei Zhigalko, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhailo Oleksienko, Gaioz Nigalidze and Ulvi Bjarani. Six rounds to go and now there will be a single round every day at 4pm hours. (much to the relief of all the players!)

Ranking after round three

Click for complete standings

Gallery of portraits

GM Alexander Areshchenko

Pakistan’s only International Master: IM Mahmood Lodhi

Current Ukrainian Champion: GM Yuriy Kuzubov

GM Constantin Lupulescu

GM Vladimir Onischuk

GM Arman Pashikian

GM Hovik Hayrapetyan

IM Amirezza Pourramezanali

One of the youngest players at the event

The games in the report have been annotated by Prathamesh Mokal who
is an International Master and also a FIDE Trainer

Photos by Amruta Mokal

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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.